Along with a medal and citation, the awardee is honoured by the naming of a minor planet.
The minor planet named after him would be known as Agrawal 20064, said his daughter Rashmi Bansal.
Agrawal, 83, was the guiding force and Principal Investigator for the AstroSat project, which was launched in September 2015.
Astrosat is the result of collaborative efforts involving Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) Mumbai, where Agrawala worked and Indian Institute of Astrophysics and ISRO’s U R Rao Satellite Centre.
Prior to the Astrosat, he proposed and led a team to realise the Indian X-ray Astronomy Experiment (IXAE) aboard the Indian satellite IRS-P3 launched in March 1996.
Along with a medal and citation, the awardee is honoured by the naming of a minor planet. The minor planet named after him would be known as Agrawal 20064, said his daughter Rashmi Bansal.
Agrawal, 83, was the guiding force and Principal Investigator for the AstroSat project, which was launched in September 2015. The satellite was built on a frugal budget of $50 million (Rs 400 crore).
Planned as a five year mission, Astrosat is still producing useful data and its observations have been cited in over 300 research papers. The satellite has the unique capability of viewing celestial objects with a suite of 4 co-aligned instruments and an X-ray sky monitor on a single satellite platform.
Astrosat is the result of collaborative efforts involving Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) Mumbai, where Agrawala worked and Indian Institute of Astrophysics and ISRO’s U R Rao Satellite Centre.
Prior to the Astrosat, he proposed and led a team to realise the Indian X-ray Astronomy Experiment (IXAE) aboard the Indian satellite IRS-P3 launched in March 1996.
