Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology

Srishti student Bidisha Das is just back from NASA. As part of the Caltech Space Challenge organized by The Keck Institute of Space Studies at the California Institute of Technology, she got the opportunity to participate in a five day student competition/workshop on designing a manned mission to a Near-Earth Object (NEO).

32 students from 14 different countries came together as part of the program that is directed towards the President's initiative of sending astronauts to an asteroid by 2025. Bidisha says, " As the only design student among the 32, I was trying to look at the holistic scenario and working specifically in the human Factors and designing the human habitat for the astronauts. I was working on the Public outreach part as well with the human factors. The interaction with great scientists and mentors like Nigel Angold, Don Yeomens, Professor James Wu, Professor Takashi Kabuta, Nathan Strange and the various participants from technical backgrounds was really more than a dream.” The student designs are aimed to be a starting point for a NASA NEO mission or help identify potential international or commercial collaborations capable of such a mission.