India must initiate formation of ASA on lines of NASA, ESA: Nambi Narayanan

CHENNAI: Former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan has emphasised that it is vital for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the US and the European Space Agency (ESA) and Asian countries to work together in the space sector.

India must take the initiative to form an Asian Space Agency (ASA) on the lines of NASA and ESA, to fast-track space science and research, veteran scientist Nambi Narayanan told DT Next.

“I desire that the countries including India and China in Asia should unite and form an agency called ASA. This is imperative of the times. These days, ISRO is doing much better than NASA. At the same time, if the powerful countries of the world dominating the space sector work together, they can do research in space and on other planets besides the moon and make many discoveries soon. It will usher in a new era in aerospace,” Narayanan said.

“Countries including India, China, Russia, South Korea and Japan should come together to form ASA and this joint venture will place the Asian countries at the high table of space science. If this happens, this will be bigger than NASA and ESA,” he opined.

‘Wayanad disaster entirely man-made’

Commenting on the massive landslides in the Wayanad district of Kerala, the scientist Narayanan said the landslide was entirely a man-made disaster.

“India is a pioneer in technology for early detection of natural calamities and astronomical technologies. But why such massive human casualties? This is because of human greed. The nature of the Western Ghats varies from one to another. Some hills are covered with rocks and some are covered entirely with soil. Wayanad region, where landslides have occurred, is built entirely of red clay,” Nambi explained.

He said that the reason for today’s plight of Wayanad is the removal of traditional trees with long thick roots to plant plantation crops such as rubber and tea and the constructions erected in dangerous areas. “Disaster like Wayanad can happen in the future anywhere,” he noted.