Rockets by visually impaired kids to be launched today

Thiruvananthapuram: As many as 15 students of government school for the visually-impaired at Vazhuthacaud have hopes sky high, with rockets made by them ready for launch on Tuesday.
‘Mission Sparsham’ would have been impossible if not for determination of Peyyad-native Aathira Preetharani, CEO of ExoGeo, a Canada-based defence and space manufacturing company.
The mission involves five model rockets, one simple single-stage rocket and four other multi-staged ones. The students who have been active participants in the whole process from naming the rocket to building it and getting it ready for the final step will witness the launch at around 10:45am at Thycaud Police Ground.
It all started when Preetharani, a 24-year-old who is also an astronaut and fighter pilot in training, was invited to the school in November 2022 as chief guest for an UN-affiliated programme. Realizing that the children were interested in rocketry, she left them with a promise to help them make and eventually launch their own rockets. She then took it up as a personal mission and bore the entire expenses of around Rs 1 lakh.
“The children who have worked on this project are from standard V to VII and are 40% to 100% visually impaired. My search for proper resources to introduce rocketry to these children in simple terms and to find the right materials and designs which are simultaneously functional and safe enough to be used by them ended at Ludhiana-based Rocketeers Research Institute,” said Preetharani.
Preetharani’s biggest challenge, besides procurement of resources, was to find appropriate ways to convey the concept of rocketry to these children. “The challenging part was to draw a picture of a rocket in their minds as they did not even have an idea of what it looked like. It is not the children’s fault because science is generally designed for able people. There are books on quantum mechanics and rocketry for even toddlers, which means children can grasp anything if ideas are conveyed to them. They are more capable than we give credit for,” she said.