Chandrayaan 2: HRD encourages students take up courses in aerospace engineering

Lauding the successful launch of Chandrayaan-2, the HRD Ministry on Monday encouraged students to take up careers in aerospace engineering and said its 'Swayam' portal will offer online courses on the subject from July 29.

India on Monday successfully launched its second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 onboard its powerful rocket GSLV-MkIII-M1 from the Sriharikota spaceport to explore the uncharted south pole of the celestial body by landing a rover.

"ISRO will go 'back to the moon' today. Learn Aerospace Engineering with Swayam, who knows, if you are a part of the journey the next time," the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry tweeted.

The ministry's 'Swayam' portal will offer six online courses in aerospace engineering and these will help students acquire skills and knowledge on designing, manufacturing and maintenance of spacecraft, aircraft, missiles and weapons systems.

The courses being offered on the portal include the 12-week 'Aircraft stability and control' course and 'Design of fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicles' course of eight weeks.

Both the courses will be conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur.

IIT Kanpur is conducting two more courses 'Introduction to ancient Indian technology' (8 weeks) and 'Introduction to rocket propulsion' (12 weeks).

While IIT Bombay is offering a 12-week course in 'Introduction to aerospace engineering/flight', IIT Kharagpur is offering a eight-week course in 'Vibration and structural dynamics'.

Launched in 2016, the HRD ministry's 'Swayam' platform hosts Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC).

The geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle lifted-off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 2.43 pm and successfully placed the 3,850-kg Chandrayaan-2 into the earth orbit about 16 minutes later.

The mission's success brought in huge relief for ISRO scientists after the July 15 launch was called off just about an hour left following a technical glitch in the rocket.