Hosur school kid wins free trip to Nasa

Krishnagiri: A class 10 student from remote Krishnagiri district conceived an “artificial, imaginary” planet where human beings can live, and won a free trip to the National Aeronautics Space Administration in the United States. Kiruthika, the 14-year-old girl, student of a private school in Hosur, came up with the idea of imaginary planet, ‘Aparana Basaraya’, named after the great astronomers of India, Aryabhatta and Bhaskaracharya.

The ‘Aparana Basaraya’ concept was sent as an entry for the space settlement design contest conducted annually by Nasa-Ames Research Centre for School Students. As many as 1,567 students in 18 countries, including Bulgaria, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, UAE, India, the United Kingdom and USA, sent in over 562 entries. Kiruthika’s entry did not make it to the top 10 in the contest but her idea recevied appreciation and she was offered a free trip to Nasa. Six students from Jalandhar in Punjab won the grand prize for conceiving ‘Vona’, a settlement in Mars.

“My passion is biology but I decided to take part in the competition after my neighbour informed me about it,” says Kiruthika. Her project is about an artificial planet which can be positioned in space. It is cylindrical at the bottom and doughnut-shaped at the top. Humans can occupy the cylindrical shaped bottom area and the doughnut-shaped area can be used by cattle and others. Oxygen, water and other essentials reache the planet through less expensive sources. The project failed to impress but the jury accepted the idea and gave Kiruthika a chance to visit