Kushinagar (UP), Oct 30 (PTI) India's model rocketry and CANSAT competition saw enthusiastic participation from over 600 students with astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla exhorting them to dream big and aim higher
to fulfil their ambitions in the space sector.
Jointly organised by the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), ISRO, and the Astronautical Society of India (ASI) with the support of Uttar Pradesh government,, the four-day Model Rocketry and CANSAT National Competition saw participation from 67 student teams – 31 teams in the Model Rocketry and 36 teams in the CANSAT category.
A total of 37 launches – 13 in model rocketry and 24 in CANSAT – were successfully conducted in the makeshift launchpads set up in the lush green fields on the banks of the Narayani river at Tumkuhiraj.
This is the second edition of CANSAT and the satellites built by students in the first edition of the competition were taken at an altitude using drones.
R V College of Engineering-Bengaluru and SVKM's and Dwarkadas J. Sangvi College of Engineering-Mumbai won the first prize in the model rocketry and CANSAT competitions, respectively.
The second and third prizes in the model rocketry were bagged by Pranveer Singh Institute of Technology-Kanpur and Nirma University-Ahmedabad, respectively.
The second and third prizes in the CANSAT category went to Dayanand Sagar College of Engineering-Bengaluru and BITS Pilani-Hyderabad, respectively.
"When I was your age, I had no idea what all this meant. So, that is the shift, the transition that I am seeing, that what you are doing right now is just phenomenal," said Shukla, who recently became the first Indian astronaut to travel to the International Space Station (ISS).
Besides Shukla, IN-SPACe Chairman Pawan Kumar Goenka, Deoria MP Shashank Mani, and ISTRAC Director A K Anil Kumar attended the final day event.
Shukla's address resonated deeply with the participants as he urged them to push boundaries, nurture curiosity, and take pride in being part of India’s growing space movement.
"The IN-SPACe Model Rocketry and CANSAT Competition was inspired by the Prime Minister's vision to encourage and prepare talent who will build India’s future space missions," Goenka said.
For the participants, this was less about winning and more about building India's next missions – one ignition point at a time, Goenka said.
"At the heart of this initiative was the vision to empower young minds to take their innovation quotient out of classrooms, and soar higher with grit and conviction," Vinod Kumar, Director-Promotion Directorate, IN-SPACe, said.
Events like this prove that India's space future will be built brick by brick by young minds across the country and IN-SPACe remains committed to building more such platforms where talent can practise, fail, learn and soar, said Kumar. PTI SKU SKU KVK
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