#DNAEdit | India's space programme is inspiring learning

Public interest in space is now at a level not seen since the days of the Apollo missions. With Elon Musk's plan to establish human life on Mars by the mid-2020s having recently been revealed, with movie audiences being enthralled by one extraterrestrial adventure after another - Gravity, The Martian, Interstellar, a new trilogy of Star Wars movies - with New Horizons, Mangalyaan, and Rosetta firmly embedded in the public consciousness, it is one of the most exciting times to live in for space enthusiasts. Yet meaningful youth engagement remains lacking.

This time of exciting exploration and speculation is not without its challenges ranging from the technical to the political. These are challenges are best served by a generation of highly skilled and trained engineers and scientists who are passionate about space and determined to move the species forward. India is ideally suited to lead this new wave of space exploration and discovery. Although The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) lacks the long, illustrious history of a NASA or ESA, it has proved itself through Mangalyaan and commercial satellite launches. India has pioneered innovations to significantly reduce the cost of space travel. We have the advantage of a large young population that tends to prefer science and engineering and is energised by ISRO's achievements. However, due to India's space programme's lack of youth engagement, young space enthusiasts have few opportunities to explore and hone their skills.

Internationally, several high school space design competitions and innovation competitions have been established. Some of these are accessible to students in India, prominent among them being the Asian Regional Space Settlement Design Competition (ARSSDC) and the NASA Ames Space Settlement Contest. Both of these call upon students to design space settlements in the style of 2001: A Space Odyssey's Space Station V (perhaps less so on Star Wars' Death Star). Students design structures, materials, life support systems, livable areas, business and financial plans and more, for these self-contained and self-sustaining orbital habitats. The first is to teach aspiring aerospace engineers and designers something of the industry experience, while the second focuses more on the research aspects of space design.

Similar to the international Olympiads, these competitions aim to get students excited about the prospects of space habitation, and to create a generation of future space engineers who will work towards achieving in practice the goals that they realised in theory during their teenage years. The first issue is that there is a little clear incentive for India's youth to be doing this work from India. ISRO has not invested as much as other major space agencies in youth outreach, such as the ESA has achieved via their Rosetta cartoons and their own “Odysseus” space contest for students as young as 7. Both of the major space settlement design competitions are conducted out of the US (in the case of ARSSDC, winning leads to participating in the International round at Kennedy Space Centre, and so, India-based space enthusiasts such as myself feel that their passion is better pursued elsewhere.

The cost of participation in many space competitions is also high. For many design and innovation events, the final round takes place in the USA; only those from well-off backgrounds can easily afford the costs of travel and accommodation that are necessary.

This situation is, fortunately, beginning to change. SPACE India recently announced the Kalpana Chawla Space Settlement Design Competition along the same lines as the ARSSDC. However, ISRO's involvement has been limited to, over the years, little more than quizzes and essay writing, with a few rocket launching events. Another way to youth engagement could be through internships. Currently, the national space agency has no system in place for internships until the college level - when most students have made up their mind about their field of choice.

It would clearly be beneficial for India's standing in the global space community if they could take advantage of the talent and zeal for space science shown by many Indian students. Students would certainly be glad for further opportunities to show and develop their skills, and outreach and student involvement would benefit ISRO as well. For a country that is often proclaimed as an upcoming space power, India will find it difficult to attain and keep this status if the next generation of scientists and engineers is not cultivated, through more accessible competitions and experiences,through internships, and through better outreach.