Two engineering students of a private college in Yamunanagar, Haryana, who have been doing research on space debris and its reduction for six years have been invited by the United States embassy to address President Barack Obama at Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi on January 27.
For Saurabh Kaushal and Nishant Arora, it will be a long awaited moment. They are both pursuing M.Tech in Electronics and Communication from the Institute of Science and Technology, Kalawad in Yamunanagar, and have conducted extensive research on how to minimise the damage to existing and future missions from space debris. Mr. Kaushal said they received a letter from the U.S. embassy on January 19. “We had earlier shared our research with the Indian Space Research Organisation and European space agencies,” he said.
Pointing out that space debris is a major cause of pollution, he said there are an estimated 50,000 pieces of old and unused satellites or old missions that continue to float around dangerously in space. “They pose a threat to both current and future missions and our research is on how we can minimise the threat and solve the problem.”
