Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda has been selected by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affair (UNOOSA) for a scientific project on human space flight and space exploration.
Department of Botany at the university has been selected for the Human Space Technology Initiative's (HSTI) Zero Gravity Project on Microgravity under UNOOSA's HSTI programme and have received a proposal regarding the same on July 18 from the UN agency, Vice Chancellor, MSU Baroda, Yogesh Singh, told PTI.
Head of Botany Department, Sandhya Kiran, who would be working as the Chief Investigator of the project, said MSU had applied for the project in May this year and have received the proposal this month.
The project will begin in September and run for two years. Twenty students and eight faculty members will be part of it, Kiran said.
The Human Space Technology Initiative was launched in 2010 by the UNOOSA which aims at encouraging international cooperation in activities related to human space flight and space exploration in various countries.
Singh said under the project different experiments related to the effect of Zero Gravity on plants will be conducted and it will also create a pathway for the researchers as well as students to get more such opportunities in the near future.
