SAC ISRO Director A.S. Kiran Kumar on Indian Space Technology – Present and Future(Video)

Ahmedabad, 10 October 2014

Here is the video of a speech of A.S. Kiran Kumar – Director of Space Applications Centre ISRO Ahmedabad at Vishwakarma engineering campus during IIT Gandhinagar annual event Amalthea’14. The topic of his speech is: Indian Space Technology – Present and Future.

Director of Ahmedabad based Space Application Center and distinguished scientist Alur Seelin Kiran Kumar received his Physics (Honours) Degree from National College, Bangalore University in 1971. He obtained his Masters Degree in Electronics from Bangalore University in 1973 and thereafter M. Tech Degree in Physical Engineering from Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore) in 1975. Shri Kiran Kumar joined Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 1975. He has contributed to the design and development of Electro-Optical Imaging Sensors for Airborne, LEO and GEO platform based imaging sensors starting from Bhaskara TV payload to the latest TMC ad HySI payloads for Chandrayaan-1 missions. He has made very significant contributions in evolving the observation strategy encompassing, Land, Ocean atmospheric and planetary studies. Important contributions cover –

Ø Realizing three tier imaging concept for IRS-1C to Resourcesat-1
Ø Ocean Colour instruments to cater to PFZ forecast
Ø High Resolution along track stereo imaging system of Cartosat-1
Ø Achieving sub-meter resolution optical imaging capability with TES to Cartosat-2
Ø Realizing of meteorological payloads of 2-channel and 3-channel VHRR
Ø Third generation Imager and Sounder from GEO platform
Ø Terrain Mapping Camera and Hyper Spectral Imager for Chandrayaan-2 mission.

As Associate Director he has steered design and realization of communication, navigation, microwave and remote sensing payloads at the Centre.

He is recipient of many a laurels/awards like –

· Indian Society of Remote Sensing Award for the year 1994.
· VASVIK Award (Electronic sciences and technology) for the year 1998.
· Astronautical Society of India Award (Space sciences and Applications) for the year 2001.
· ISRO Individual Service Award 2006.
· Bhaskara Award conferred by Indian Society of Remote Sensing for the year 2007.
· Laurels for Team Achievement Award 2008 of International Academy of Astronautics.
· ISRO Performance Excellence Award 2008.

He is a (i) Fellow of National Academy of Engineers and (ii) Corresponding Member of International Academy of Astronautics.
He has represented ISRO in international forums like World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and Committee on earth observation satellites (CEOS) and is currently CEOS chair.