Oriya Siblings won the Best Space Settlement Design Contest By NASA

Oriya siblings Pooja Bhattacharya and Swastika Bhattacharya of Bhubaneswar, have won the grand prize for a rocket design-based on Orissa temple architecture and was adjudged the best at the Space Settlement Design Contest 2009 organized by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), US.

Total 309 projects submissions from 875 students were sponsored by 96 teachers from across the world. Students from Bulgaria, Canada, China, Dubai, UAE, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Romania, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Uruguay and USA.

The Grand Prize winning submissions for 2009 went to Eric Yam, Pooja Bhattacharya and Swastika Bhattacharya. Eric is a student of Ms. Gillian Evans at Northern Secondary School in Toronto Canada. His project was named ASTEN [PDF file].

Pooja Bhattacharya and Swastika Bhattacharya were instructed by Ms. Itishree Nanda of St. Xavier's High School in Orissa India. Orissan Design Inspired Systems and Aerovehicles [ODISHA]: A Concept [PDF file].

Puja Bhattacharya is a Plus Two second year student in BJB Junior College in Bhubaneswar and her younger sister, Swastika is a student of Class X at St Xaviers' High School, Kedargouri in Bhubaneswar. The girls were guided by their father Deepak Bhattacharya, a scientist.

The project, Orissa Design Inspired Systems and Aero Vehicles (ODISA), was developed in 2007 and was presented at a competition here, where experts rejected it.

Disheartened, the girls did not take up the project until the school principal insisted them to continue with it and submit it at higher forums and send it to the European Space Agency (ESA).

The ESA praised the project following which they decided to submit it at the NASA’s contest. "It's a great achievement and the credit goes to the school authorities," Deepak Bhattacharya said.

He claimed all aspects of the project is unique and new. The space vehicle can run on solid fuel, it has four engines and six giant boosters laid out in a triangular manner called Triratha as per Kalingan temple style. The vehicle can also carry an additional two metric tonne weight to a geo-stationary orbit about 36,000 km above the earth's surface.