Ranchi lad awarded by NASA

Vivek Ranjan an ex student of DAV Bariatu,2008 batch Ranchi, grabbed second position in an international competition on ‘Planetary Atmospheric Entry Vehicle’ organised by The American Astronautical Society (AAS) and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) at Texas, and sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). He was a member of the winning team WELKINSAT of the SRM University.

A group of 11 students of the SRM University had successfully launched CanSat, a model satellite to read atmospheric conditions. Under the leadership of Sidhant Dhall a final year student of electronic and instrumentation a group of students of the university took part in the competition held in U.S.A on June 9.

Of the 35 teams from 10 countries, team WELKINSAT from SRM University comprising eleven students finished second on international plane and first in India scoring 90.93% in the competition and were awarded by $1500 in cash.

It’s an honour to be a part of this team. We worked very hard in this project said Vivek. Describing the project, he said that the competition was on the topic related to space and we launched a model of satellite 12x15 cm lased by GPS navigation System, which can provide the information of weather and humidity. We used three parachutes for different altitudes that were unfolded mechanically reducing the descent rate to five metres per second. It took about 15 seconds to reach the highest altitude and 80 seconds for descend. In every two seconds, it provided information on humidity, temperature, pressure and atmospheric tension. To check accuracy, one team had to put a raw egg inside the Lander, the idea being the egg remained intact without any kind of damage on landing.

The group competed in 3 phases wherein they secured 11th, 7th, and 2nd place internationally. First and second phase was on teleconferencing with NASA scientists and they assessed the work of each team. The final phase was conducted in USA Texas ground USA on 9th June 2012 The three of the member has gone to USA for taking participate in the final competition in which Vivek Ranjan played the role of mentor.