Monday, June 13 2005 22:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: American space agency NASA has given Indian names to certain types of rocks on Mars, a senior planetary geologist at the space agency's Mars Mission said today (Jun 13, 2005).

"NASA has given Indian names to a number of rocks. We shall disclose the names soon after NASA gives a clearance to make this classified information public," NASA planetary geologist Amitabha Ghosh, currently on a three-city tour to India, told PTI today.

Ghosh said the rocks were named in consultation with Indian geophysicists and astrophysicists.

For the first time, a four-member team from NASA, including planetary geologists Ghosh, Dr Michael Wyatt, astrogeologist Dr James Rice and Dr Nicole Schultz are in India to further space science research.

"The idea is to hold talks at scientific organisations and planetaria to create awareness about space science research," Ghosh, the only Asian on the mission, said.

As members of the Mars Explorer Rover Mission, the four have been witness to the activities of Spirit and Opportunity rovers that landed on Mars.

"We will be talking about our experiences, our disappointments and moments of glory during the 500 days of the mission through a series of lectures to create awareness about space exploration in this country," he said.

The team would conduct awareness campaigns in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore, he added.

Ghosh said there were times during the mission when not a single scientist had an idea of what they were observing on Mars. "We have experienced moments when we were saying: 'this can't be true' or 'we must be making a mistake'. We are here to talk about our experiences, to transport students and Mars lovers beyond our Earth," he said.

The NASA team has put up a website - www.tharsisindia.com - (Tharsis is the biggest volcanic region on Mars) to further its awareness campaign in India.

The website outlines the mission and invites students to carry out fun activities like putting together a paper model of the Pathfinder and Global Surveyor spacecrafts as also guide downloads for teachers.

The team would also be exploring the possibility for collaborative ventures with scientific organisations in India, Ghosh said.