Tripura’s BJP-IPFT
government is planning to build a space museum for children at Sukanta
Academy Complex in Agartala, Tripura Minister for Science and Technology
Sudip Roy Barman said Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters here, Barman said that the facility would be
built with technical expertise from Indian Space Research Organization
(ISRO).
A three-member ISRO delegation including Associate Director Jeevan
Pandit and Associate Director R. Raghu met the Health Minister on
Tuesday and discussed the project, Roy Barman told media
ISRO was asked to submit a Detailed Project Report (DPR) within April
this year. The project is expected to be functional before Durga Puja,
the minister informed.
“Such museums are very important for students, especially for
children. It will help them to understand about space, stars and
constellations, space travel, how astronauts function in space, how
rockets are launched and such things,” Roy Barman said.
After it becomes operational, Tripura’s space museum would be first
of its kind in the state and a novel structure in all Northeast.
The Space Museum would use an existing structure of simulated theme
space travel entertainment centre called ‘Journey to Sun via Mars’.
‘Journey to Sun via Mars’ was inaugurated on December 24, 2008. The
project was implemented by Tripura Renewable Energy Development
Authority (TREDA) at Sukanta Academy, a city hall built in 1997.
The centre was operational till 2014, when several technical faults
started to appear. A series of efforts, failed to rectify the machine
and the unit was let alone after a meeting with the then Chief Minister
Manik Sarkar where it was decided that “it may be difficult to restart
the Journey to Sun via Mars at Sukanta Academy due to technical
reasons”.
The incumbent government took up the issue in August last year and a
Space Museum was contemplated to be set up with technical support from
ISRO.
