Space debris researcher Sourabh Kaushal of Space Techos writes for the Global Business English Network

Sourabh Kaushal is an international award-winning space technology researcher who is developing innovative ways to clear up space debris (the junk orbiting the Earth from previous exploration and disused satellites). He has been working on a project with the Google Lunar X prize foundation - "Team Indus" – the only Indian team in Google’s $30 million competition to find the first privately funded team to send a robot to the moon. Sourabh was runner up in the Jerome Pearson Award 2010 from the International Space Elevator Consortium, USA. He has published numerous research papers on space debris mitigation and speaks at international conferences. Sourabh is an INK2012 Fellow. He blogs at Space Techos along with Nishant Arora. 

In this article, specially written for the Global Business English Network, Sourabh talks about his background, academic achievements and ongoing research projects.

My name is Sourabh Kaushal. I am a resident of Yamunanagar, Haryana. I was born in Jagadhri, Haryana on 26-July-1990. I spent my childhood in a small village at Kala Amb, Sirmour, Himachal Pradesh. I did my schooling at the “Blue Bells School” at Naraingarh, Haryana which was 10km away from my home. My father’s name is Mr. Ramesh Kaushal. He is an employee in the steel industry. My mother’s name is Mrs. Asha Kaushal. She is a housewife. Due to some financial circumstances we had to shift our residence from Kala Amb to Jagadhri. The main reason for shifting our residence was that my father lost his job. He got another job in another steel company at Jagadhri. I joined S.D. Public School, Jagadhri from the eighth grade. I was a normal intelligent student in my class. I scored 75% marks in the tenth CBSE board exams. I chose the non-medical stream in the eleventh standard. I was chosen as Head Boy of my school. I was not happy with my marks in the twelfth CBSE board exams. I scored only 68% in the exams. Then I joined the “Institute of Science and Technology”, Yamunanagar which is affiliated to Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra. I joined a four year B.tech(Bachelors of Technology) course in the Electronics and Communication stream. I came first in my class in the first semester examination of my class.

As far as my interest in space science is concerned, I was really inspired by Dr. Kalpana Chawla who was from the neighboring city Karnal. I was really interested in the topic of space orbital colonies i.e. human life in space. I and my classmate Nishant Arora had a discussion about the topic of space debris.   

We found the topic of Space Debris quite interesting and started to access its history and recent growth. Then we got to know about the “Jerome Pearson Award” from the “International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC), USA”. They called for papers which suggest new mitigation methods of Space Debris. We a  research project and proposed some new methods. We spent nights and days researching about this topic. Initially, we were put off by many people including some of our faculty members and even  the chairman of our Institute. But we were 100% focused on our aim and then we proposed some new methods to mitigate Space Debris. We submitted an abstract of our paper entitled “Space Debris, and its Mitigation” for the first round. Our abstract was selected in the first round. We were very pleased to get our abstract selected in an international level competition. We submitted our full paper after the selection of the abstract. We were hoping for the best in the competition. When we got the result of “Jerome Pearson Award 2010”, we were not able to believe that our paper came “Runner-up” in the competition. It was a moment of pride for us, our parents and our Institute.

After this first achievement, the people who had originally dissuaded us also appreciated our achievement. This was just the start of our journey. This achievement boosted our morale and confidence to a great extent. After this achievement, our paper entitled “Space Elevator: Dilemma and Remedies” was selected for presentation in the “Space Elevator Conference 2010” which was held at the “Microsoft Conference Centre, Redmond, Washington, USA”. We presented our paper in the conference and we were delighted to know that great scientists like Dr. Jerome Pearson and Dr. Yuri Artsutanov were also present there in the conference. Then we presented another paper on the Space Elevator in “Euorospaceward Conference 2010” which was held at Luxembourg, Europe. After this achievement our paper titled “Space Debris: A Growing Issue” got selected for presentation in “ISTS 2011” which was held at Okinawa, Japan. We laid stress on using of nanotechnology in the mitigation of Space Debris. We also proposed using Space Debris to create energy. We received Dr. Kalpana Chawla Young Scientist Award for our innovative research work on Space Debris Mitigation. We received this award from the father of the late Dr. Kalpana Chawla who was a source of pride for our nation and world. It was a great motivation for us to work harder and fulfil our dream.

Our research ideas are appreciated by many space agencies including NASA, ISRO, JAXA, ESA, ISEC, Centre for Space Research (USA).

We are currently working with an official team of “Google Lunar X Prize” which is a great platform for us to show our talent. Moreover, the team’s name is “Team Indus” which is the only team from India in the competition. So we want to work hard for Team Indus to show India’s potential to the world. Recently, Our research paper got selected for the IEEE ESTEL Conference 2012(ITALY), COSPAR Scientific Assemby (Mysore). I was invited as Guest Speaker at EUSPEC, GERMANY.

We have founded a group named “Space Techos” whose aim is to spread greater awareness about space science in common people. We invite each and every person interested in space science to our group. We want to show the hidden talents in our society to the world. This journey from general B.tech students to Space Techos is quite interesting and remarkable and this journey will never end until our last breath. 

Space debris has become a growing concern in recent years, since collisions at orbital velocities can be highly damaging to functioning satellites and can also result into more space debris.  Some spacecraft, like the International Space Station, are now armored to deal with this hazard. Armor and mitigation measures make satellites or human spaceflight vehicles like the shuttles very expensive and heavy. Our research is a semi-technical survey of the expanding literature on the subject. The research explores the different sources and mitigation methods of space debris. We have proposed some methods to deal with this problem of space debris. We have also highlighted the shortcomings of some of the proposed methods found in the literature and we have further proposed some modifications in some of those methods.  We feel some of them can be very effective in the process of mitigation of space debris; a few of them may need some modifications. In this we  propose the use of nanobot and nanotube mesh techniques, the use of decayable material for manufacturing space machines and we suggest the proper segregation and decomposition of space debris and using some of it for energy generation and space structure also.

Er. Sourabh Kaushal

INKtalks in association with TED Fellow

www.spacetechos.in

www.spacetechos.blogspot.com

spacetechos@gmail.com

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