He did India proud winning not one but two NASA awards. Gurmeet Singh, 20, a student from Delhi, got the rare honor for an unmanned space vehicle that he designed to run on moon’s surface.
Overwhelmed by his feat, Gurmeet wants every Indian student to have an opportunity to showcase his talent. In this context, on Thursday, he appealed educational institutions to keep themselves abreast of this kind of global events so that students from India are not left behind in the race.
He told reporters, "India should send students for such programmes often and acknowledge the talent they have."
Like Singh, all his teammates are undergraduates. They styled the vehicle they designed as Moon Hummer. They christened it after a popular vehicle brand of General Motors, at the US space agency during the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Annual Great Moon Buggy Race in April.
Singh is a student of the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) while his four teammates belong to Kirori Mal College of Delhi University (DU). Together they designed Moon Hummer which won them two awards - the Safety System award and the Best Initial Design in the event.
Sharing his experience with reporters at the Indraprastha University, Singh said, "We made a 70 kg moon buggy from mild steel which could run on the surface of the moon, unmanned. We called it the Moon Hummer."
He further said, "We were the smallest and the youngest team there because all the students in our team were either from first year or second year graduation. Call it destiny, but this achievement means a lot to us."
As many as 33 teams took part in the global event.
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