CHENNAI: At an event held at GRT Grand Convention Centre on Tuesday, Madurai-based J Dhaanya Thasnem was declared as one among three students to go on an educational tour to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and interact with astronauts there. The class 10 student bagged the opportunity after winning the National Space Science Contest 2019.
The other two winners are from Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. The contest was conducted earlier this year by the US-based Go4Guru, online tutoring and educational tour services company. “The students will be fly to the United States to visit NASA for nine days. There, the students will write an exam with other international participants. Five winners will be selected and given a USD 10,000 scholarship to study at the Florida Institute of Technology,” said Kayamboo Ramalingam, CEO, Go4Guru.
The company has been organising educational tours since 2011. So far the organisation has taken about 4,000 Indian students to space organisations in the US, Europe and Japan.
Dhaanya Thasnem, studying at Mahatma Montessori Matric Higher Secondary School said she was looking forward to learning things practically and that she was always interested in Space Sciences.
Dr Don Thomas who served at the International Space Station program overseeing NASA experiments said, “I was 35 years old when I got selected in NASA and 39 years old when I went to space. I have gone around the earth 692 times and it all started with a moment of inspiration. That is what Go4Guru is doing through the contest.”
Don Thomas will be delivering talks at various school in Tamil Nadu and other parts of India until October 4.