成人论坛

On the 26 October 2007 Sarah Jones, a final year Physics student at the University of Leicester, took her first steps in India after a long ten hour flight.

She had won her chance for this once in a lifetime opportunity when she applied to visit the Indian Space Research Organization through the Leicester-based Kalpana Chawla Foundation.

Listen: The Kalpana Chawla Foundation / Interview with Sarah Jones

成人论坛 Leicester's Katharine Sutton went to the National Space Centre to find out more about the Kalpana Chawla Foundation. Plus 成人论坛 Leicester's Tony Wadsworth spoke to Sarah Jones about her trip to India...

Who was Kalpana Chawla?

The Kalpana Chawla Foundation, was established by the National Space Centre in Leicester and named in honour of the first Indian woman in space.

Kalpana (centre) and the Columbia crew

She tragically died in the ill fated 28th mission in February 2003 of the shuttle Columbia, when the space craft broke up over Texas because of damage sustained in its initial launch.

The foundation itself aims to celebrate diversity in space travel as well as encouraging young people to pursue careers in science.

The foundation is particularly concerned with reaching out to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, in order to give them opportunities that they would never have hoped to have, without their charitable aid.

Visiting the ISRO

The foundation is keen to educate and inform as many people as possible of the good work they are doing.

The Indian Space Research Organisation

This is where individuals like Sarah come in. Sarah was one of two science students invited to tour the Indian Space Research Organization.

Sarah found Bangalore to be a crazy, manic place. She told me that she couldn't, "explain how busy it was, the whole place was just seething with people."

They travelled as much as they could around the city, however, partly due to the care of their minders, Sarah sometimes felt like she was always viewing India through a windshield.

However, it wasn't all so regulated. The group went to Chennai to see the launch pads from where 100% Indian satellites are catapulted into space, as well as going to see the satellite tracking and communication system where "you feel like you're in Houston, with all the big screens and big rows of scientists."

Not so similar to NASA...

Though the similarities with NASA end there:

There seems to be a genuine social impetus to all their activities:

"All the scientists you speak to, they have these deep social feelings of possibility with what they are doing for the people, before anything else."

Sarah got to see how that desire to help the people worked in reality:

"Now they've set up this computer network that means they can get education the very rural areas they wouldn't get teachers to before."

From dreams to success

Sarah saw how the kids in India were being enthused by science through a project where school kids built water powered rockets. This was, Sarah said, very reminiscent of her of work with Outreach Physics in Leicester.听

Sarah, in return for the incredible experience is set to continue working to raise the profile of the Kalpana Chawla Foundation and its efforts to show young people that, as the inspirational astronaut herself said, "The path from dreams to success does exist."

Surely there is no better way to inspire children, than to show them how we reach for the moon and the stars in science and leave them dreaming of one day following in Kalpana's path.