Space Station: For a life in the orbit

Russian rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky had once said: “The earth is a cradle for mankind, but one cannot live in that cradle forever.”
Resonating these very words, N. Sri Raghunandan Kumar, founder and secretary of Planetary Society, India, speaks of the five students from Hyderabad whom he mentored for the coveted Space Settlement contest by NASA which takes place at the International Space Development Conference every year.

Vedanth Bhatnagar, G. Pravalika, P. Smriti Saryu, C.G. Karthik and C.G. Nikhil flew to Los Angeles to present their Space settlement plan called Vyomagraha to reputed scientists, academicians and delegates from around 20 countries.

“I had previously interacted with these children in their respective schools during their astronomy club sessions and what set them apart from their peers was their ability to apply whatever they had learnt in school,” says Raghunandan about the group, which comprises students from Classes VIII to XI.

Vedanth, one of the members, explains their nomadic self-sustaining settlement plan for the Space, “Vyoma means Space and graha means planet, and ours would be a habitation orbiting Mars, (it could move on to another orbit if situations worsen, hence the name nomadic) relying on in-situ research utilisation (ISRU), where we would be initially taking resources from earth and keep recycling and using them in Space for sustenance.”

But what happens when one can’t recycle an essential element any longer? “We land at the planet we are orbiting and use their resources to create the ones we need,”explains Vedanth, who is still on cloud nine because he got to attend a conference by former astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the development of American Space programmes.

Each student has come back with a special memory. Karthik shares: “I spoke to Dr Paul Warren from Stanford University about Space medicine on Google Hangout. He also invited our team to visit him at the University, and he recognised me when we reached there.”