Pakistani doctors who built Australia's first mobile telescope, now have their sights set on Mars

 

It's dark in the remote town of Indamuka, about 600 kilometers from Adelaide, Australia, and in a camping ground, several people are gathered around a trolley with a plastic tank-like object mounted on it.It is August 2016 and the leader of these people is Dr. Akbar Hussain, a resident of Karachi.This tank-like object is actually a plastic dome that houses a heavy-duty 11-inch-diameter telescope and allows people to get a close-up view of the planets.It was the launch day of the 'Southern Cross Outreach Observatory Project', Australia's first mobile observatory.It was built in Australia to allow people to see different planets in areas where the sky is very clear but people do not have telescopes.Akbar Hussain is actually a medical doctor and works in a hospital in the suburbs of Adelaide.It is every engineer's dream to have an international patent for his design, but Dr. Akbar and his team have not one but two patents related to space engineering.So how is this possible for a Pakistani doctor who has not even received formal engineering education?When Akbar Hussain was growing up in Karachi in the 90s, he was obsessed with learning more about astronomy and observing the planets, and his brother Mehdi Hussain 

was also involved.

Today, the telescope in it has been upgraded, but Mehdi Hussain is the president of the Karachi Astronomical Society and the director of the Astrodome, and for dozens of young people in Karachi, the society is an important source of learning more about astronomy.