Thiruvananthapuram: Thousands of school and college students thronged the exhibition grounds of the 97th Indian Science Congress (ISC 2010) here and were very excited to see a model of Chandrayaan, India's first moon spacecraft, as well as images of the lunar surface.

"The science exhibition at this mega event has been a big hit with the younger generation, as about 50,000 boys and girls from different schools and colleges in the city and state visited it on the concluding day," ISC president G. Madhavan Nair told the sources here.

The exhibition, held in the makeshift air-cooled hall spread over a hectare of land in the Kerala University campus, showcased the achievements of various state and central organisations, academic and research institutions in science and technology.

About 200,000 people, including students and parents from the city and across the state visited the expo during the last five days, as the premier national science event was held for the first time in this southern state capital.

"It's heartening to see renewed interest in various disciplines of science among the school and college-going students. They were curious and enthusiastic to know the developments taking place in the exciting field," Nair said.

The space pavilion of the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) at the expo was the star attraction, as a model of India's maiden lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 was displayed with pictorial and graphic details of its scientific and technological objectives achieved during its 10 month moon mission.

Chandrayaan was launched from spaceport Sriharikota, about 80 km north-east of Chennai, Oct 22, 2008, but had to be aborted Aug 30, 2009 after a 10-month rendezvous with the earth's only natural satellite.

"As the people, especially boys and girls did not have an opportunity to look at the original Chandrayaan spacecraft from so close, they were excited to see its replica with images of the moon's surface and graphic description of its various operations," former ISRO chairman Nair pointed out.

As the cradle of the Indian space agency, this coastal city had the country's first rocket launch site in the early sixties and is host to its Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) where rockets are designed, developed and assembled for launching communication and remote-sensing satellites.

Besides ISRO, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Ministry of Science & Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Geological Survey of India (GSI), Department of Atomic Energy, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) were some of the major exhibitors.

Cashing in on the occasion, the Techno park of the state-government housing IT and IT-enabled services firms had put up a huge pavilion to showcase its offerings.

"The National Council of Science Museum and the National Rural Health Mission stalls also drew huge response," exhibition committee convener Shajimon A. Cherian said. IANS