Navi Mumbai student wins Viasat space innovation challenge
· Free Press Journal
Adeetya Uppal, an aerospace engineering student at IIT Kharagpur from Navi Mumbai, has won the Viasat: Space for Good India Challenge 2026, a STEM innovation competition organised by Viasat in partnership with the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe). Uppal was awarded Rs 5 lakh for his project, DRISHTI: AI Guardian for Sustainable Orbits, designed to detect space debris, calculate satellite avoidance manoeuvres and transmit collision prevention commands through Viasat’s satellite network. The solution aims to reduce response time from hours to seconds, improving satellite safety and protecting orbital infrastructure used for communications, navigation and disaster response. Shashank Kumar Singh, a PhD researcher at IIT Gandhinagar, secured second place, while Aryan Gupta, a mechanical engineering student at IIT Roorkee, finished third. The winning entry was selected from six finalist projects. Other concepts addressed disaster warnings, crop health monitoring and emergency communications in disasters.
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