President A P J Abdul Kalam on Saturday called for the setting up of an international space consortium to protect the precious wealth of energy, water and minerals on earth.

"There is a tremendous amount of space activity taking place in the polar and geo-stationary orbits around the earth. Only a common minimum global space mission can protect these assets and prevent any terrestrial war from being extended to space," Kalam said while inaugurating the Space Summit at the 90th Indian Science Congress in Bangalore.

"Such a space mission needs to have a 50-year perspective... The world space community should see to it that no geo-political conflict is extended to outer space, thus threatening the space assets belonging to all the mankind," Kalam said.

Kalam expressed confidence that India could contribute to the creation and sustenance of such a global force.

"The advantage of space science and technology today is its highly interdisciplinary nature, cutting across institutional boundaries.

"My suggestion to the global space community is: if you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it... and thus share the goodness of life and mind across all humankind," Kalam added.

ALSO READ

President, PM to attend Indian Science Congress
PM beckons Indian scientific diaspora