Vinod Mankara, a national award-winning filmmaker-writer, launched his new book from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) here. The SDSC-SHAR hosted the one-of-a-kind premiere of ‘Prism: The Ancestral Abode of Rainbow,’ a compilation of science essays, on Thursday evening, as preparations for the country’s much-anticipated Moon mission Chandrayaan-3 were in full swing.
While the countdown for the historic launch was underway at the space centre, ISRO Chairman S Somanath handed over the book to Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) Director S Unnikrishnan Nair. Besides Lipi Publications managing director Lipi Akbar, the book’s publisher, SDSC-SHAR Director A Rajarajan, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) director V Narayanan, former ISRO Director K Radhakrishnan, and many other space experts were present during the function.
‘Prism,’ published by Lipi Books in Kozhikode, is a collection of 50 excellent essays from many fields of research, including space science, astronomy, biology, anthropology, and mathematics. It discusses a variety of themes, including the James Webb Space Telescope, dark sky tourism, black hole confirmation, and the first space flight of the dog Laika. Somanath wrote the prologue to the 167-page book, declaring it to be full of “marvels of science.”
‘Prism’ is an investigation of the artistic and poetic aspects of science, and it aims to assist ordinary people create a close relationship with science and appreciate its beauty. ‘Yanam,’ a science-Sanskrit documentary on India’s historic Mars Orbiter Mission ‘Mangalyaan,’ was directed by Mankara. He has six features and 685 documentaries to his credit, as well as numerous national and state prizes.
Among Mankara’s documentaries are ‘Chandranu Nere Choonduviral’ about Chandrayaan-1 and ‘VSSC@60’ about the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre’s 60th anniversary. A new documentary about the Chandrayaan-3 is also being produced.
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