The Events: SPACE Art Competition (4th October 2008): Where all the budding talents explored their imagination & created a world outside our own where the possibilities were endless. A world, literally beyond the sky!! Date: 4th October 2008 (Saturday) Venue: Amphitheater India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. Timings for competition: 9:00 am - 11:00 am 12:00 pm -2:00 pm Participation Categories: JUNIOR: Class III to Class V MIDDLE: Class VI to Class VIII SENIOR: Class IX to Class XII Theme: Exploring the Universe through the Eyes of children Space Fair ( 5th October 2008):Celebration of the World Space Week at the Space Fair - A carnival dedicated to Science and Astronomy. The fair hosted a variety of engaging activities for the students and grown ups alike and was accompanied by a lot of fun. One learnt scientific principles through various exhibits, games, science models etc in a carnival like atmosphere. SPACE is the only organization in India which works for such a noble cause. Date: 5th October 2008 Venue: The Corridor, IHC Timings: 10 am to 1 pm Theme: Astronomy and Space Exploration.

After much fanfare the India Chapter of World Space Week celebrated by SPACE came to an end. The celebrations were spread over two days, 4th and 5th October, at the India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road and were sponsored by Lilliput, manufacturer of children’s apparel.

On the 4th, SPACE had organized a SPACE Art Competition with the theme “Exploration of the Universe through the eyes of Children”. And see the universe through the eyes of children we did! Its as if the entire sky was their canvas and their imagination the very tools with which they created fantastic lands replete with space elevators, alien settlements, futuristic colonies, faraway galaxies and what not!! More than 150 students from around 15 schools participated in the event. The paintings were evaluated by a panel of judges consisting of Mrs. Kapoor and Mr. Kishore Shankar Chawla, Coordinators, Visual Art Gallery, IHC on behalf of Dr. Pandey who is the Art Consultant and Advisor, Visual Art Gallery, IHC along with Mr. C.B. Devgun, President, SPACE. The judges had a tough time selecting the winners from amongst such a multitude of talents. Finally, the following were declared the winners:

JUNIOR LEVEL [Standard III to V]

1st Prize: Aastha Jindal, Birla Vidya Niketan.

2nd Prize: Nidhi Giri, Birla Vidya Niketan

3rd Prize: Anukarsh Raj Singh, Silverline School.

MIDDLE LEVEL [Standard VI to VIII]

1st Prize: Shagorika Das, Birla Vidya Niketan

2nd Prize: Anirban Sengupta, Birla Vidya Niketan

3rd Prize: Priyal, Hillwood’s Academy

Consolation Prize: Tanish Karmakar, Vishwa Bharti Public School

Mansi Chopra, Silverline School

• The paintings in this category were so marvelous that it was difficult to judge them. Hence specifically for this category we had two consolation prizes because we couldn’t let them go.

SENIOR LEVEL [Standard IX to XII]

1st Prize: Yukti Arora, Birla Vidya Niketan

2nd Prize: Dipten Kundu, Birla Vidya Niketan

3rd Prize: Pallavi Chandolia, Mt. Abu Public School

Mr. Liberhan, Director of IHC also witnessed the creative efforts of the children and was there to encourage them at the venue.

On 5th October, it was time for a Space Carnival! The theme of the SPACE fair was “Astronomy and Space Exploration”. The venue was crawling with activity since morning. The idea was to impart the knowledge of scientific principles through various exhibits, games, science models etc in a carnival like atmosphere. A host of stalls were set up for this purpose. Some of the most popular were: Mars Eggnaut Lander wherein the participants had to land an egg safely on a simulated Mars surface by building a Launch Vehicle using a variety of raw materials; A Comet kitchen where literally a comet was created using raw materials found on earth; A stall on Time Machine where visitors with the help of a working model of Samrat Yantra learnt how the world kept time before watches came into existence; another stall where one could know their weights on various planets etc. There was a whole gamut of fun activities where participants could win a lot of prizes and certificates. Infact the youngest participant to win a prize for safe landing of Eggnaut was merely five years old!! The visitors to the fair came from all age groups, backgrounds and professions. The Chief Guest for the occasion, Prof. P.B Sharma, Director, Delhi College of Engineering gave away the prizes for the Art Competition held the day before and talked about using our energy resources as much as we want but replacing them responsibly. He also encouraged the participants to develop a scientific temper and greatly appreciated the efforts of SPACE in doing so. There was also a surprise in store for all the visitors in the form of a Lucky Draw in order to encourage them to keep on participating in such kinds of events and the bounty to be won was a pair of Binoculars which went to Sneha Tiwari. We are sure she is going to spend many sleepless nights gazing at the sky through her Binoculars. The fair went on till late afternoon and was a roaring success and gave an opportunity to everyone involved right from the participants to the organizers to learn a little more about our wonderful Universe and marvel at its wonders!!

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SPACE Group is a group of companies doing pioneer work inrnthe field of astronomy and space science. It has ventured into astronomy and spacernsciences products, services, software and educational material. It is the first companyrnto develop and implement astronomy and space science modules and activities inrnthe schools all over India.rnSpace caters to various market segments including Corporate, Educational Institutes, Universities and Individuals. The philanthropic wing of the grouprnknown as Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educatorsrn(SPACE) is one of the most active agencies popularising astronomy and spacernscience among the masses.

Space activities and hands on experimental procedures findrnmention in text books of various national and international universities. SPACE has developed astronomy centers in all over India whichrnhost the various activities of the organization. Such centers have beenrndeveloped in schools, tourism corporation properties of states of Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh,rnJharkhand, Punjab, West Bengal, Maharashtra, andrnKarnataka. SPACE is working to tie up with Hotels and resorts all over India tornprovide astronomy activities as the regular activity for the guest.

SPACE has introducedrnAstro-Tourism in the tourism industry of India and the present focus is to developrnAstro-Tourism as a premier business & employment opportunity for thernmasses. The demand for such tourism has surged amongst the masses by therncontinuous efforts of the organization.

To know more please visit: www. spacegroupindia.org, www.space-india.org, www.stepl.org