“We are limited only by our imagination and our will to act.” – Ron Garan 

Kosmorena is the annual event organized by SEDS KCT to celebrate Space Week to create awareness about space science among school and college students all around the world. We connect students and enhance their skills to bring out the creativity in them through various insightful talks, webinars, and other exciting events.  

Kosmorena’21 is a 7-day event from 4th October 2021 to 10th October 2021 with four talks, two projects webinars, one workshop, and a career guidance program that focuses on the advancement of technology in the space sector. We aim to provide the students with all the necessary skills to build their careers in space.  

Preparation for the Event: 

The speakers were approached by the PRO team. And the poster works for the event started one month prior and the promotional videos were prepared and shared on social media handles like Instagram, LinkedIn, Telegram, Facebook. The invitation for Kosmorena’21 was circulated to schools through the mail. The poster and registration form for respective events were shared on social media a week before the event.  

Participants: 

No. Of. Registration: 2532 

No. Of. Participants: 1389 

Event Description: 

Tech talk 1 – Guidance on Spacecraft Swarm: 

   The first session of Tech talk on Guidance on Spacecraft Swarm was conducted to enhance the enabling teams of spacecraft robots to autonomously perform the complex task under uncertainty using tools form. This session was taken by Dr. Yaswanth Nakka, Post-doctoral researcher at Caltech University, USA. In this session, he talks about the space robot’s guidance and navigation system and the ways to calculate and determine the location algorithms. In continuation with that, he spoke about the control and orbital placing of the spacecraft and the obstacle avoidance techniques used for space robots with the working proof of the projects they are currently doing. Finally, he ended up with the subsystems used in space robots and thrusters that are used in their project and it is working. At last, the session was open for queries and the participants got their doubts clarified.  

Tech Talk 2: 

    The second session of the Tech Talk was on the Role of NASA Flight Controller in human spacecraft by Mr. Abbhinav Muralidharan. He started his talk by sharing his insights about Artemis-1. He then gave a description about the part of the flight controller in NASA and about Artemis 1. Firstly, he gave a gist about himself and his background. Further, he explained his role in NASA’s Johnson’s space center. He explained about the flight Director who is the decision-making authority and about flight controllers and followed by front and back rooms along with the Plan Train Fly (PTF). He also shared about flight controller training and astronaut training. He also informed us about the flight controller training flow and flight control. He also shared the key “soft” skills of flight controllers and Risks. He finally shared his daily routine and clarified the doubts of the attendees. 

Tech Talk 3: 

    This is the 3rd session in our Tech Talk series, Communication System Design for satellite by Prof. Mahadevan scientist in ISRO / Prof. ECE department, PES University, Bangalore. He started by describing the importance of a communication system in satellites. Then he described the working of the Transmitter, Receiver, and Antenna. He also spoke on uplink and downlink. He also described every part in Transmitter, Receiver. He gave a brief note on the other communication systems used in many other antennas and their applications. He ended the session by answering and clarifying the questions of the participants. 

Tech Talk 4: 

   The last session of the Tech talk series was on “Our Universe from Quarks to Quasars” by Mr. Rishabh Naakra, Physicist and Founder of “Secrets of Universe.” We were all astonished to know that how our universe evolved and how the quarks came into existence. He also took us through the theory of the Big Bang, the aftermath of the bang, and how the evolution of our universe was split into four stages. The participants were fascinated by how the trillions of stars were categorized into seven by Annie Jump Cannon. He concluded the session with a quote saying that from twinkle-twinkle little stars to stars of the hot magnetic ball of plasma we all grew up and finally the session was open for questions. All the participants came up with their queries and shared their valuable feedback. 

Career guidance: 

    The space career guidance was conducted to provide insightful guidance and clarifies all your doubts to set a well-defined path for your career in space. This session was taken by Nikhitha C, CO-Founder and CEO of the Society for Space Education, Research and Development. At the beginning of the session, she shared about her, and then she explained about the branches in aerospace and the fields that are in the space domains such as Space scientist, Space engineer, Space lawyer, and Space medicine. And she also spoke about the non-space domain scholars who became astronauts and the ways to become an astronaut. Finally, the participants asked their queries and guidance to achieve their goals. 

MATLAB workshop: 

           The session MATLAB Workshop was conducted by Mr. Vinayak Desh to provide a clear view of Rocket flight dynamics and Guidance Navigation Control. He shared and explained the five points to be focused on as the reason for learning MATLAB. The first application is Rocket Flight Dynamics. He explained this along with the theoretical values of a generic launch vehicle. He also shared interesting points about the configuration parameters in Simulink and flight gear which is built-in in Simulink. He then explained the working of the open-source flight simulator. He also explained the codes used in the simulation. He shared some of the commonly used blocks and about the Aerospace block set. He also gave some illustrations. Later he explained the Ports and Subsystems in Simulink. Then he answered some interesting questions of the attendees after which he started the second application which is Missile Guidance and Control. He explained the proportional Navigation system. Then he explained the complete simulation with different event views and then about the guidance law and finally, he gave a little recap on the complete simulation and about the debugging of the codes. Then he again clarified the doubts of the attendees. 

Webinar 1 (CubeSat): 

   The first session of the project webinar was on CubeSat in collaboration with Team ENISAT of SEDS CELESTIA. This was conducted as a two-day session (9th &10th October). The first day of the session covers the basic systems involved in CubeSat and the components involved in CubeSat like thrusters, ADCS, etc. This session also covers the basic design of the satellite and the params considered in designing the outer structure. Then the Day-1 session ended with the Q/A session. The second day of the session started with a welcome note and our chief guest Abdul started explaining EPS and its working, application, and its components and each of its applications. And he explained some of the major challenges faced by CubeSat and its power production. The session was followed up by our guest Mr. Kaustubh. He explained the communication system, its application, working, and objectives. Then another Guest Mr. Paurush explained On-Board Computing and its requirements, and its architecture and he described the hardware and software components. The session was concluded with a Q/A session. 

Webinar 2 (autonomous drones): 

  Day 2 of the project webinar was in collaboration with Team Ardra of SEDSVIT on Autonomous Drones. It was indeed a splendid session where the speaker walked us through the basics such as Types of Aerial Systems, the flaps, and wings, and how they generate thrust. Then we learned a little more about the types of motors and batteries to be used in our drones. We were also told about the factors that affect our drone’s weight and flight. Then at the end, we were given a brief description of the electronic speed control, Ground control stations, and the Telemetry Communication between the drone and ground control station. The session concluded with a Q&A session where the enthusiastic participants volunteered themselves and got their queries answered. 

Learning and Outcomes: 

World Space Week is celebrated to create awareness on space science and the space sector. Tough the various events held in Kosmorena’21 like the webinars and workshops conducted, the participants gained knowledge about the Matlab software, Autonomous drones, Communication Systems, and science involved in each field of the space sector. The young budding space aspirants got complete guidance through the Space career guidance program. The overall motive was to enhance the skills and enrich the knowledge of our participants and thus the participants were benefitted and satisfied.