Every morning Vignan Pattamatta wakes up in the south and Saatvik Agarwal in the north. Both the precocious 14-year-olds, however, share a common claim to fame.
Pattamatta from Hyderabad and Agarwal from Delhi have been chosen by NASA -- after a global contest -- as 'student astronauts'.
The two are among the 16 winners who will be travelling to the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Pasadena, California, for two weeks. It is the leading centre for robotic exploration of the solar system.
Vignan will be involved in planning the placement of robots on the red planet.
In an exclusive chat with rediff.com, an elated Vignan said, "I had come to know about the 'Red Rover Goes to Mars Student Astronaut' competition from the Hyderabad Planetary Society."
"I was asked to write a scientific project report in not more than 1,500 words on the topic relating to the NASA's Red Rover mission to Mars."
"It was an interesting subject," he said. NASA asked Vigyan what experiments he would conduct if he were given the Mars Exploration Rover to prove that water existed on the red planet.
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"But by surfing the Planetary Society's website extensively, I got ample information about the subject," he said. "So I had prepared that scientific report on how to detect water on Mars and ensure maximum utilisation of the equipment without wasting energy. I submitted the report to the National Centre of Indian Planetary Society, Mumbai, in March 2003."
The Indian Planetary Society evaluated all the entries from India and selected 10 as national finalists. These 10 candidates from India were among 63 international finalists.
After one more filtration process, a few finalists were selected to participate in telephonic interviews. The results of international finalists were out on May 28 and Vignan received the interview call on August 5.
"I was asked questions on my essay and on my general knowledge on space and Mars. I had performed very well in the interview. The official announcement about the winners contest came recently," a proud Vignan said. "When I came to know that I had won, I was so excited. We called up all our relatives and friends and informed them."
Vignan's parents -- P V Ramana and Sridevi -- were elated over the achievement of their only child.
Ramana, who worked earlier as a scientist at the city-based Atomic Minerals Division under the Department of Atomic Energy, recently took voluntary retirement. Sridevi works as a chemistry lecturer at Nagarjuna Junior College in the city.
"My parents and friends have to share the credit for my achievement. They encouraged and supported me throughout the contest. My friends are regularly checking out the Planetary Society's website for similar contests now. The school organised a felicitation for me on October 15," Vignan said.
Vignan, who is studying ninth class in St Paul's High School in the city, will be going to Pasadena, California, in January 2004 to learn more about spectroscopy, petrology, jet propulsion systems and the Mars mission at NASA.
"Earlier, I used to read a lot of books. After I got my computer at home, I began concentrating on the Internet. I log on to the Net everyday and collect information on science and technology. This contest has changed my outlook. It has helped me develop a scientific bent of mind," Vignan said.
The budding scientist, who considers Indian President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam as his role model, said "Now that I collected lot of information on space science, I find the field very interesting. So, I wish to take up space science as my career. I want to be a space scientist."
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