School children tried to envision possibility of future human settlement on Mars during the Young Astronomer Talent Search (YATS) 2015 of Odisha, whose zonal rounds started off from Berhampur on Sunday.
The theme for this year’s YATS is ‘Building up a Base on Mars’. YATS is a collaborative annual venture by Pathani Samanta Planetarium, Bhubaneswar, and Tata Steel since 2007. Its aim is to identify talented school students having a knack for astronomy and space science as well as to popularise life and contributions of legendary astronomer of Odisha, Samanta Chandrasekhar popularly known as Pathani Samanta. Jayadev Kar of Pathani Samanta Planetarium launched this zonal zonal round in Berhampur.
Short-listed participants from various schools of Ganjam and Koraput districts participated in the Berhampur zonal round with their models. They presented models of their imaginary base camps of human race on Mars.
All these models had taken account of climate and other conditions in the planet according to findings of recent mars missions including that of Mangalyan of India. A model depicting mode of communication between astronauts after they reach Mars as well as their communication with Earth drew much attention of visitors.
Zonal rounds of YATS will be conducted in eight centres in Odisha including Berhampur. Selected students will take part in a State-level YATS-2015 camp to be held in Bhubaneswar in December. Twenty school children identified in this camp would be awarded and taken on a trip to ISRO.
