While most of us adults keep staring at the moon wondering at the depth of our existence, one 18 year old boy from India has won a NASA ‘Moon’ prize for his remarkable project proposal of a human settlement on the moon.
In India while thousands of students are sweating it out in board exams, 18 year old Sai Kiran from Hyderabad, Telengana, India has achieved the unthinkable. From thousands of entries around the globe, this young lad has secured second place in the NASA Ames Space settlement Contest for 2017.
Sai Kiran entered the grade 12 category of the contest and began working on his incredible project while living in Singapore way back in 2013. The agenda of the contest was to invite kids to propose ideas of a human settlement on the moon.
The contest Conducted by NASA Ames Research Center, San Jose State University, and the National Space Society (NSS) included entries from kids up to the 12th grade.
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Sai Kiran finalized his thesis last year in March. Titled ‘’Connecting Moon-Earth-Space, and Humeiu Space Habitats’’, it proposed a means for humans to settle on the moon based on what Sai Kiran says is called Centripetal acceleration.
Speaking in an interview Sai Kiran said "The first segment of the project is about creating elevators that could transport humans and cargo to the Moon so that humans can form their settlements there”.
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Sai detailed plans of an LBSE (Lunar based space elevator), moon orbiting pods and an Earth based space elevator or EBSE anchored from the poles with a counterweight point being a solar based power system for an asteroid located 250,000 km in space. The boy then brilliantly outlined proposals for the lunar base with entertainment centers, recreation, administration, governance and agriculture.
According to Sai Kiran, The cost factor of sending humans to the moon in rockets could well be reduced by constructing such elevators that would bridge the space gap of 40,000 kms.
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The most important aspect of Kiran’s thesis was the emphasis on resolving problems on gravity where in the absence of gravity, a settlement wasn’t possible. The boy’s project undoubtedly impressed NASA which is why he was awarded a NASA ‘moon’ prize.
Sai Kiran a student of the British International School was all smiles as he received the second prize from NSS senior researcher Al Globus. While Sai Kiran’s project was truly impressive, the Grand Prize went to two young Indian students of the 10th grade Shaswat G. and Ankita P from New Delhi for “ANASTASI 2032 an underwater base to simulate a space settlement. They were among several Indian students who made a clean sweep of the awards.
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