Bhubaneswar: “Space gives a sense of humbleness and spirituality. Sight of the boundary-less Universe with its innumerable astronomical bodies and movements make us fell how small and insignificant we are in this endless ocean”, said the NASA astronaut Jack David Fischer.
Fischer while delivering the 14th Lecture of Odisha Knowledge Hub Lecture series organized in the secretariat conference hall Friday said, “Space gives a sense of humbleness that humanity has created thousands of scientists working in space research over the years making it possible for us to explore the space”.
Responding to a query put by a student, Fischer said, “walking on the space gives an amazing and transfixing experience”. In another query he replied, as we went up we saw a blue line surrounding the earth indicating that life was within it. Responding to another curiosity of a girl student about existence of Allianz in the space David said, “ I can not say that we are the only living beings in this boundary-less universe” There might be living beings in other solar systems”. He also said that young scientists and students in Odisha have projected encouraging interest in space research which would be of great help in future. He added, “space has taught us how we the people from different countries can come together to work for the growth of science and technology”.
Introducing Fischer to the audience, Development Commissioner R. Balakrishnan said in the year 2009 Jack Fisher was selected as a member of the NASA Astronaut Group-20 for his distinguished achievements in military service and astronautical space engineering. He served as a flight engineer for Expedition 51 & 52 that launched to the International Space Satation on 20th April, 2017. Fisher returned to earth with his team members on 3rd September, 2017 with an overall space stay of 135 days, 18 hours and 8 minutes.
Odisha Science & Technology minister Badri Narayan Patra presented OKH memento to Fischer in commemoration of his visit to the state. Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi, Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries of various departments along with senior officers and academicians from Universities, IIT, Bhubaneswar, Institute of physics, IMMT, IIIT, and Bhubaneswar participated in the lecture.
