World Space Week Celebrations at URSC

World Space Week (WSW) is an international celebration of science and technology, and its contribution to the betterment of the human condition. Current year’s WSW celebrations at URSC consisted of space education and outreach events held during Oct 04-10, 2023. Goals of the out-reach program included,

• Exciting young minds about science, technology, engineering and mathematics
• Providing unique leverage in space outreach and education
• Educating people about the benefits from space research
• Encouraging greater use of space for sustainable economic development

These are achieved by,

• Day-long Interaction with student community at select 8 locations across Karnataka through eminent speakers from the centre. Conduct of various student competitions and setting up of space exhibition at these places
• 1 hr Space Quiz program on All India Radio (AIR, FM 101.3 MHz) on each day, during 04-09 Oct, 2023
• Active display of space science & technology concepts through ‘Space on Wheels Exhibition Bus’ at three different locations in South Karnataka.
• Live demonstration of satellite communication techniques using the wonderful scientific hobby of HAM Radio

The inaugural & valedictory functions were conducted at URSC on 4^th & 10^th Oct respectively, with student participation from different educational institutes.

Details of these programs are outlined below.

Inaugural session, Oct 04, 2023

Nearly 350 school children and teachers visited the centre and participated in the various events, witnessed the space exhibition and took part in the Quiz program. Shri H N Suresha Kumar, Chairman,Apex committee-WSW2023, gave the introductory remark and welcomed all for the inaugural event. He explained about the importance of world space week program.

Director, URSC, in his presidential address, emphasised on the need of entrepreneurship in space industry and motivated the audience – especially school children, in engaging themselves in searching the avenues to come out as entrepreneurs. He also elaborated the revenues that are involved in the space industry and share of Indian based setups in that.

Chief guest Prof. Navakanta Bhat, Dean, Centre for Nano Science & Engineering, IISc, Bangalore, addressed the gathering with his vast knowledge in the field of entrepreneurship. Prof. Bhat himself is part of a start-up in the field of bio-sensors and nano technology. He explained about the avenues in the field of Nano science and emphasised on the importance of education and sincere efforts that need to be put by the students at this stage.

Outreach program, Visiting different educational institutes

To ensure wider outreach for space activities and impart awareness about space technology to the student community in Karnataka state, four sub-committees were constituted. Each sub-committee visited two institutions in the allocated zones and interacted with students & teachers. Eminent speakers from ISRO/URSC were invited to these locations and held technical and popular science talks as well as interacted with students. The teams and their visits are summarised in below table;

The programs at each location included popular talks by senior scientists of URSC, different competitions to school children & award of prizes. demonstration of space science/technology concepts through standies, satellite & launch vehicle exhibits, video shows and personal interaction with students by visiting URSC officials. Formal inauguration & valedictory functions were conducted at all locations with the able support from host institutions.

‘Space on Wheels’ exhibition vehicle – a mobile exhibition travelled in Mysore & Chamarajanagar districts, reaching out to hundreds of students and public at three locations viz., Melkote, Nanjanagudu and Chamarajanagar.

AIR Program

URSC sponsored and jointly organised a program with All India Radio (AIR) on FM Rainbow 101.3 MHz radio station during 04-10 Oct, 2023. This program is named as “ಅಂತರಿಕ್ಷದ ಅನಾವರಣ – Exploring the space”. It was a one hour program broadcast every day during 03 to 04 pm. This program had an initial talk by eminent speaker of URSC followed by a space Quiz. The radio channel through its wide listenership base (nearly 23 million), has given a wide outreach to the intended information sharing on space technology. The Radio Quiz program received very good response from the listener community with hundreds of responses every day during the week.

Introductory talk was by Director, URSC Shri. M Sankaran on 4th Oct 2023, on the theme ‘Space and Entrepreneurship’. His talk emphasised on the enhancement of business opportunity in the space sector. The inaugural talk was followed by popular talks by different Project Directors of URSC discussing different ISRO projects/programs that would touch the common public.

The space quiz questions related to space science, technology, space scientists, etc. were posed to audiences during the 1 hour programs during 04-09 Oct. Correct answer (two members answering first) for each question were awarded with a memento

The program got concluded on Oct 10, 2023 by a brief talk by Shri.H N Suresha Kumar, DD-MSA & Chairman, WSW-2023 committee. He briefed about the type of space sector services viz., Telecommunication, Earth observation, Weather forecasting, GPS systems, space science etc.,

Subsequently, results of Quiz were announced by Sri Arun Kumar and quoted “interest is the fuel for driving ones mental engine” and motivated the general public with team work and work culture in ISRO. The questions were generated by the AIR program committee led by Sri A Shankara. The team also designed the memento showcasing the ‘Ch-3 Lander on moon (on-board picture taken by rover)’ and the ‘assembled propulsion module and Lander’ on the payload adapter of launch vehicle. This memento has gained a wide popularity among public.

Demo of Satellite tracking & data processing using HAM Radio

Team from UPagrah Amateur Radio Club (UPARC) of U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) took the students on an exciting journey of real-time tracking of space objects and receiving images from weather satellites at Satish Dhawan auditorium of URSC during the inaugural and valedictory functions. This program outreached to about 600 students and teachers of various schools.

The application of HAM radio techniques were also presented to the school children. Smt. Suman Valke, President, UPARC gave a presentation on “Introduction to HAM Radio (Amateur Radio)”. Live demonstration of two-way HAM radio communication was carried out by Shri Rahul Waghmare & HN Suresha Kumar.

The UPARC team further gave a live demonstration to the audience about the satellite tracking and data processing. Live demonstration of real-time tracking of space object, receiving weather images from NOAA-18, NOAA-19 and METEOR M2-3 satellites using inexpensive hardware (RTL-SDR and in house made antenna) and open source softwares.

The space quiz was another attraction for the students. All students present during the inaugural and valedictory function, participated in the quiz and the winners were awarded during the respective functions.

Valedictory function

Valedictory function at URSC was held on Oct 10, 2023. Nearly 300 school children and teachers visited the centre and participated in the various events, witnessed the space exhibition and participated in the Quiz program. Shri H N Suresha Kumar, Chairman-Apex committee, WSW2023, welcomed all for the inaugural event. Shri DR Veeresha, Member Secretory-Apex committee, WSW2023, presented the report on the WSW-2023 outreach activities conducted by URSC.

Director, URSC, in his presidential address, spoke on the scope of space industry in terms of direct & indirect business. He also elaborated the revenues that are involved in the space industry and share of Indian start-ups.

Chief guest for this occasion was Mr. Y Dilip, OS & Director, ADE, Bangalore, addressed the gathering with his vast knowledge in the field of entrepreneurship. He congratulated the ISRO team for the success of Ch-3 mission. He explained about the avenues in the field of science & engineering and emphasised on the importance of education and sincere efforts that need to be put by the students at this stage.

Conclusions

The World Space Week outreach activities were conducted successfully.

Teams reached-out to about 5000 students in-person at various host institutions, about 800 students and general public through Space on wheels exhibition, nearly 600 students through live HAM Radio program and millions through the AIR program.

‘Paper models of ADITYA-L1’, ‘Photograph of lander by rover on moon’ and the ‘Spacecraft model’ were the most attractive items presented to the public & host institutions in addition to the different goodies which centre provides during various outreach programs. The efforts put-forth by Organising committee towards successful conduct of all events received wide spread appreciations by everyone.