Space Wise

The team of ten started making the project about four months ago. “We read about the NASA contest and knew we had to contribute,” says 14-year-old Subegh Singh. Subegh and her colleagues spent endless hours in the library,science labs,on maths books and with physics theorems. She tells us about the sessions held mulling over different planets,the composition of the soil,traces of water and oxygen. “We were left with two alternatives — we realised Mars and the Moon were the only planets that could sustain life and we zeroed down on the latter,” says Mohit Singh,as he rewinds three months back,a time when they worked on the composition of soil and had a roller coaster ride of sorts.

“There were disapprovals,challenges and solutions,but towards the end of February,we narrowed down on a way to extract oxygen from lunar soil on the moon,” explains Mohit,as the group shows us the model that’s put together in an amateur way. It has tiffin boxes that portray gas holders,a single rod heater wrapped in silver foil that marks the solar heater and garden pipes connect everything.

“But the idea is novel and they get the honour from NASA for thinking out-of-the-box,” says Mitul Dikshit,director of the school. Dixit is extremely happy that these students in the age group of 13 to 15 years are exploring and thinking of ways for setting up space colonies to ensure the survival of humans.

Whether or not they will win the contest is yet to be known as the conference is scheduled from May 18 to May 23. “But we have all taken a pledge to work towards saving the earth. Through the project we have realised that though there could be alternatives,they might not be able to sustain all forms of life,” says Mohit.