Orissa boys bag NASA award

ROURKELA (Orissa): A research project presented by four students of this steel city has won the second prize in the 'NASA Space Settlement Design Contest' conducted by the NASA AMES Research Centre in the USA.

Ullas Mishra, the group leader, Amitav Mohanty, Ashim Kar and Soumya Ranjan Pati, all students of the Ispat English Medium School run by the Rourkela Steel Plant, were awarded the prize for their project titled 'Eden', official sources said on Wednesday.

The project was on an imaginary dwelling place in space providing accommodation for about 10,000 people.

Other institutes had also been awarded the second prize category, the sources said. Four teams from India had participated in the competition with the Ryan International School of Delhi being placed in the first prize category.

Altogether 95 teams from across the globe had participated in the competition of designing a space settlement. The enterprising students have received a certificate each and have been invited to visit NASA.