NASA prize for student

Anto Ryan Raj.

TIRUCHI: Visualisation of an eventuality depicting humankind to deem orbital settlement as inevitable in the interests of mother earth by 2090 won for Anto Ryan Raj, a standard X student of Campion Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School, the third prize in the Literary Merit Category at the NASA Space Settlement Design Contest 2010 for school students all over the world, conducted by NASA Ames Research Centre.

Anto, the only student from Tamil Nadu selected for the international award, has been invited to make an oral presentation of his research titled ‘Her Children Around Her’ at the 29 {+t} {+h} International Space Development Conference, 2010, at Chicago from May 27-31. Accompanied by his mother P. Celin, Anto will be in the enriching company of several hundreds of students of his ilk from all over the globe for the five days.

Speeding past the time barrier, Anto had transformed himself as an orbital settler in 2020, heaving a sigh of relief every day at the telescopic sight of the beautiful Mother Earth.

His narration takes stock of the struggles she (Mother Earth) had endured in the duration of global warming, reflecting in the melting of glaciers, rising sea levels and submergence of coastal towns consuming lives in multitudes, in the aftermath of the failure of nations to reach a legally binding treaty to check carbon emissions at the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference at Copenhagen. Every nation prioritised economic growth over upkeep of Earth.

The narration replete with a sense of responsibility states: In 2030, when the ocean ecology was shattered terrifically, when massive immigration of coastal population was shaking the Globe, when water and food supply to people had become a huge problem, the orbital settlement project gained support of the space research community.

The first experimental orbital colony built to accommodate 100 inmates was positioned at GEO in 2040. Orbital settlers developed new technologies to enrich the ozone concentration in endangered atmospheric area. Intense research was carried out to avoid cooling of stratosphere and to reduce recombination of ozone and oxygen.

The second orbital community instituted the successful solar power station at space and gave solution to the energy crisis in earth which helped to cut down further emission of GHG. Slowly the earth community understood that the outside activities have turned around the situation even more than they expected. They approved further orbital settlements each with a specific mission.

I am looking at my Mother Earth from the fifth and latest settlement. I was born on this settlement. But I always feel that I belong to Earth. If I was born on Earth, I would have felt that I belong to a particular nation. But I am so lucky to be born on this settlement and to have a strong belief that I belong to Earth.

We are grateful to the earth community for having given us this wonderful opportunity to pay our contribution to our dear mother. We could nurse and dress the wounds of our shattered Mother from this orbital world. Now she is completely healed. She is back on her foot. As long as she is there we will come around her. As long as she lives happily we will also live happily.

We are Her Children Around Her, the narration concludes.

Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/19/stories/2010051962200300.htm

Courtesy
The Hindu