Six students of Telangana Minorities Residential Educational Institutions Society (TMREIS) are eagerly looking forward to the day they get to visit NASA in May. It will be the first time that students of a government school coming from indigent families are getting the opportunity.

Safa Maheen (Std IX), Syed Ibrahim Ali, Muskan Tabassum, Feroz Ahmed (Std VIII), Mahveen Mohammadi and Mohd Feroz Hussain (std VII) made the project ‘TMREIS Fusion L5’ for colonisation of space. It got the NASA nod and they were invited to take part in the International Space Development Conference (ISDC) in Los Angeles from May 24 to 27.

“While students of corporate schools have taken part in this annual event, it is the first time that students of a government school have been selected by NASA,” said Raghunandan Kumar, the founder secretary, Planetary Society of India.

His organisation has been holding astronomy classes in the 40 TMR schools in Hyderabad and was responsible for igniting their interest in the subject.

Their project is about building a self-reliant colony in space. It was approved in the NASA Ames Space Settlement Contest, so now they will present its poster and explain their innovative concept at the ISDC.

All six of them come from underprivileged families and never went outside Hyderabad, and are excited for their first time on a plane.

Buzz Aldrin, the second to set foot on Moon is expected to attend the ISDC as well as Frank Drake, who propounded the Drake equation, Kathryn D Sullivan, the former NASA astronaut, and Jeff Bezos, technology entrepreneur. And the students are already psyched by the chance to meet them.

An exclusive Robotics lab in Hyderabad is also in the plans by TMREIS authorities in association with Lego Innovation Lab, Singapore. They aim at enriching the learning process as the students are also preparing for the upcoming Robotics League at Singapore.

H/T: The Hindu