The Grand Prize for this year’s contest went to a two-member team from Delhi.
Indian students swept top prizes at the NASA Ames Space Settlement Contest 2017, organized by NASA’s Ames Research Center, San Jose State University, and the National Space Society (NSS).
The competition invited entries from around the world from students up to 12th grade (18 years old, high school pupils) to design a concept that makes human settlement possible on the moon. The competition received more than 1,500 submissions from an estimated 6,000 students.
Individuals, small teams of two to five, and large teams of six or more were judged separately. The entries were also grouped by age/grade of the oldest contestant for judging.
The Grand Prize for this year’s contest went to a two-member team of high school students (Grade 10), Shashwat G and Ankita P, from Delhi Public School (DPS) RK Puram, Delhi, for creating a project called ‘Anastasi’.
Jai Deep K from Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district won the Grade 12 (high school) first prize in the individual category for his project Athena-2017. The project Antralsrushti from Maharashtra’s Pune shared the small team award with a Romanian group.
In the Grade 11 (high school) categories, Aura Space Settlement project by Rourkela girl Eeshanee T won the Individual category. Avanoa project from Delhi Public School RK Puram and The Crucifix from Punjab’s Nawanshahr shared the first prize for small teams.
The first prizes for individuals in the Grade 10, Grade 9, Grade 7 categories were also won by Indian students. Samuedhya B from Vishakhapatanam, Suphal A from Bangalore’s Bellandur, and Nidhi M from Bangalore, respectively, won the prizes.
There are a lot of other Indian names in the second and third prize list in the all six categories and also in the Artistic merit, literary merit, honorable mention lists. NASA Ames will also publish the grand prize-winning project on their official website.