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Delhi boy chosen for NASA's Mars mission

By Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

NEW DELHI OCT. 14. At a time when most of his classmates are busy preparing for their Board examinations, Satvik Aggarwal, a Class X student of Amity International School, Saket, South Delhi, is taking extensive web-based training on NASA's Mars exploration mission. The 14-year-old boy, along with Vignan Patmatta of Hyderabad, has been chosen for the ongoing project by the premier space agency.

In all, 16 students were selected from all over the world by NASA following two rounds of tough global contest in which the participants were first made to write 1,500 word essays on "If you have to control a robot on Mars for two days, how would you control it" and thereafter were tested on their knowledge about Mars through an extensive telephonic interview. Incidentally, for Satvik his selection did not come much as a surprise. He has already won the "Original Mind Award" from the Infosys Foundation and an award by India Vision Foundation for his website on space. In January-February 2004, both Satvik and Vignan would spend two weeks at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. At the leading centre for robotic exploration of the Solar System, they would work together with NASA scientists and other selected students as part of the Science Operations Wing.

Having made it to the top 16, Satvik is eager to set foot on the land of dreams. "I am eagerly waiting for the day when I would be there at NASA," he said. But here again, the young achiever is not leaving without adequate preparation. Besides the web-based training about NASA's Mars exploration mission, he is also concentrating on Digital Image Processing and Mission Operations.

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