The Government of India will be organising a pan-India celebration to mark the maiden National Space Day on August 23, 2024. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had officially declared August 23 as 'National Space Day' to commemorate the successful launch of Chandrayaan-3.
The celebrations are being organised with an aim to engage and inspire the youth towards space technology and its applications. This year's theme will be "Touching Lives while Touching the Moon: India's Space Saga."
As per the official notification by the UGC, "The celebrations will initially begin with one-day conference/workshop/exhibition, known as the Space Ideathon in universities/colleges to foster innovative ideas. Additionally, the Department of Space is organising the Bhartiya Antriksh Hackathon, ISRO Robotics Challenge, and zonal-level events showcasing the achievements of Chandrayaan-3's successful lunar landing. This will be followed by pre-event functions on the August 22 and August 23 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi."
Bharathiya Antariksh Hackathon: A national level hackathon will be organised by ISRO wherein various problem statements will be announced to the students and they would be encouraged to come up with innovative ideas. Based on the responses received, teams will be shortlisted to participate in finale at selected centres. Students who excel in finale will be offered internships at ISRO Centres. The top three winners of the Hackathon will be invited to demonstrate the applications during the National Space Day celebration on August 23, 2024.
ISRO Robotics Challenge: Being organised to provide the opportunity for the students in the area of space robotics, with a tagline of 'Let's build a space robot'. The challenge consists of an engineering project where the institutional teams build robots to compete in an extra-terrestrial-inspired arena, performing tasks based on the real-life challenges faced by space robotics. The top three winners of the Robotics Challenge will be invited to demonstrate the projects during the National Space Day Celebration on August 23, 2024.
The UGC has asked the Universities and Higher Education Institutions (HEls) to organise conferences, workshops, exhibitions, and Space Ideathon and encourage their students to participate in the Bhartiya Antriksh Hackathon and ISRO Robotics Challenge.
The HEls are also requested to share the activities undertaken by their respective institutions in the University Activity Monitoring Portal (UAMP) through the Google form available on the UGC website.