The 26th national convention of aerospace engineers and National seminar on 'Expanding frontiers in aerospace technologies - challenges and opportunities' is being organized by the aerospace engineering division board of the Institution of Engineers (India),

Andhra Pradesh centre on November 24-25 to discuss these issues.

Chief controller, Research and Development (Missiles and strategic systems), DRDO Avinash Chander told reporters in Hyderabad on Wednesday. He is also the co-chairman of the national organising committee.

Avinash Chander said cyber and space were the new emerging areas where wars would be fought and India will have to prepare for it. During the meet, India's Mars mission will also be discussed. The country has been able to leverage the spin offs of space technology for developmental purposes as well and now the challenge was to harness energy from space.

Indiawill flight test its scramjet engine developed by defence scientists in 2014, Avinash Chander said. Only two countries in the world had tested the scramjet engine, but in only one case the flight was successful. Scramjet technology is still in the testing phase, he said.

Scramjet engines can touch speeds of Mach 12 but India's scramjet engine is being designed for achieving Mach 6 speed which equals 5,800 km/hr.

Apart from making India capable of handling its defence in the space, he said the challenge was also to come up with technologies that would make space travel and tourism economical.

V K Saraswat, scientific advisor to defence minister, will inaugurate the convention and Rajaram Nagappa, distinguished professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, V Adimurthy, dean, Indian Institute of Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, S K Shiva Kumar, director, ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) will speak at the address the convention.

- Sakshipost