Participation in events and programs organized by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is considered a prestigious accomplishment globally. NASA allocates a specific part of its budget to public outreach and announces several competitions yearly, some of which are also open to Indians. However, in the past few years, there have been many news stories about students falsely claiming to have been selected for a particular panel, project, or internship with NASA.
In August 2021, the story of a 14-year-old girl from Maharashtra went viral as she claimed to have been selected for “NASA’s MSI Fellowships Virtual Panel”. The girl had used fake credentials to apply for the fellowship.
Similarly, in 2016, an 18-year-old girl from West Bengal falsely claimed she had been offered an internship for the NASA Goddard Internship Programme (GIP) at “NASA’s London Astrobiology Centre”. It turned out that NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies does not have any facility in London and that the fellowship is open to U.S. citizens only.
In 2013, a student of Anna University claimed to have been selected by NASA for training before completing his graduation. That story turned out to be fake too.
The above are only a few examples. Today, most journalists are wary of these claims and take care to doublecheck before putting out such stories.
The busted hoaxes have raised important questions about students’ high aspirations to engage with NASA, their vulnerability to scams, and the awareness of the programs and events open to Indians. Being a highly popular and influential space agency, the experience with NASA can potentially enhance career prospects and open opportunities for networking and career advancement in STEM fields.
“There is a craze among middle-class parents to somehow project their children. Indeed, any parent would want their children to shine, but by faking success or achievement, we will only do injustice to our kids. Some elements use the anxiety of the parents to show the flag of NASA and dupe. Parents and schools must be vigilant,” explains Prof. T.V. Venkateswaran, science communicator and visiting faculty member at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Mohali.
The authentic NASA outreach
The NASA website lists several learner opportunities, Indian students and researchers are eligible for a few of them. For example, the NASA Postdoctoral Fellowships are open to international researchers, including Indians, provided they have a doctoral degree and are eligible for an appropriate U.S. visa.
NASA also runs the NASA International Internships Program—NASA I2. However, India is not among the countries participating in this program. The citizen science programs by NASA are open to everyone worldwide, there are some challenges and opportunities in which Indians, including students, can participate.
The NASA Space App Challenge, being the most popular of all competitions, is a hackathon for enthusiasts, including scientists, designers, innovators, and storytellers to find solutions for challenges on Earth and in space. These challenges are based on topics such as waste management, global warming, exoplanets, etc. Participants can choose a topic from around 20 themes, and use data from NASA and its Space Agency Partners.
Rashmi Sheoran, a science communicator and ISRO Space Tutor at the Centre for Creative Learning Lab, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, elaborates, “The NASA Space Apps Challenge is a competition in which everyone from around the world can participate. The best part is that professionals, as well as students, come together in teams and design a web app. NASA has a lot of data that is available from their different missions, not just the space mission. Based on the data, they have a set of challenges that participants can work on.”
Ms. Sheoran has mentored around 30 teams from Nirma University in Ahmedabad that participated in the NASA Space App Challenge. “Just like me, there were many mentors who were industry professionals. If Indian teams compete internationally, then their app gets guidance from NASA officials. In India, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) officials guide people who are working on challenges related to rockets or aerospace”, adds Ms. Sheoran.
Rashmi Sheoran, a science communicator and ISRO Space Tutor at the Centre for Creative Learning Lab, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, mentoring a group of students for the NASA Space App Challenge
This year, two teams from India are among the 40 global finalists for the NASA Space App Challenge – Dark Mode from Harohalli, Karnataka, and EcoNet from Nashik, Maharashtra. Three teams, one each from Ahmedabad, Leh, and Kothamangalam, have received honourable mentions for their innovation and creativity, though they did not make it to the final round.
Ishita Hundia, an ad-hoc professor in Marketing and Human Resources at the Pandit Deendayal Energy University (PDEU), Ahmedabad, was one of the team members who participated in the Space App Challenge. Her team worked on building avatar-based educational games for sustainable living. While Ms. Hundia’s team did not reach the final round, the team was featured in NASA’s social media channel post. “I love hackathons, and I think with the enriching experience that hackathons bring, you can never get in a boardroom or a classroom, which brings a very transmuting experience. I love research and curating board games and video games for my classes”, says Ms. Hundia, while speaking about her motivation to participate in the challenge.
Ms. Hundia says two schools are interested in the app and have sought advice from the team. She also talks about her unique learning experience, especially while teaming up with unknown people at the beginning of the challenge, “Everyone was a new face for me, and that made the experience more enriching because when you know someone, you come from your own biases. Because I did not know them, I would only focus on their strengths first. That helped me build something and take it forward to execute it as a prototype.” She says that a good understanding of the evaluation criteria, meticulous stepwise planning, and passion for research are key elements for a well-designed project.
The Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC) is another competition open to international students from schools and universities, but not professionals. The HERC is among NASA’s 8 Artemis Student Challenges, aligned with the Artemis Program aimed at landing the first woman and first person of colour on the moon.
The HERC is a rigorous, hands-on engineering design competition in which participant teams develop, build, and test human-powered or remote-controlled rovers that can accomplish specific tasks. Interested teams first submit a proposal which experts at NASA review. Top-scoring teams make it to the final rounds, where the teams demonstrate the performance of their rovers. In addition to design, assembly and successful completion of the assigned tasks, STEM engagement is also an important evaluation criterion. While developing their rovers, participating teams have to engage at least 250 school or college students in their vicinity on topics related to STEM or space science.
In the 2024 edition of HERC, two Indian teams– The KIET Group of Institutions from Delhi-NCR won the award in the “Crash and Burn” category, while the team from Kanakia International School Mumbai received the “Rookie of the Year” award. For the 2025 edition of HERC, three teams from India have been selected. The first two are Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women, New Delhi, and Jayshree Periwal International School, Jaipur, Rajasthan under the Human Power division. ATLAS SkillTech University, Mumbai, Maharashtra has made it to the event under the Remote-Control division. The HERC event takes place at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama, on 11 and 12 April 2025.
Siddharth Shahani, Co-founder & Executive President of the ATLAS SkillTech University, Mumbai, says that students of the university were highly motivated to participate in the HERC. “Because of the flexibility of our ecosystem and the values and ethos of the university, the entire university can rally around them to make this happen”, comments Mr. Shahani. He added that the management and the faculty even supported students in setting up a crowdfunding campaign for the rover. The project also required parts and import licenses, for which Mr. Shahani had a brilliant idea, “I gave them a challenge that the Government of India is doing so much for Atmanirbhar Bharat. Why can we not find a way of building a truly indigenous rover? Let’s work on that.”
The team from ATLAS SkillTech University Mumbai comprises 20 students from multiple disciplines, including product design, management, and computer science. Speaking about the learning experience, Anish Kumar Biradar, a first-year B.Tech student and the team lead, says, “We’ve been selected for the remote control rover; it’s the first time that NASA has introduced this category in its history of 30 years, understanding the evolving technology and space sector. There are a lot of coding and software applications that come into place when it comes to remote control. We find this a perfect opportunity where we could apply what we are learning in our curriculum.”
Beyond the challenge, Mr. Biradar looks forward to interacting with other HERC participants. Amidst the competitive environment, Mr. Biradar says, “We go the friendly vibe, trying to know everyone because around 75 teams from 17 different countries have been selected for this competition. So, every country comes with a different story and culture. We will surely know their mechanism for handling the competition. But at the same time, we will also know about their team structure and working culture.”
Anshul Roy, a second-year B.Tech student, is the project’s technical lead. Mr. Roy speaks about his learning beyond the technical details, “Learning, managing people, collaborating, communicating with the team, and seeing our ideas turn into something tangible, something from our on-paper blueprints to an actual physical product. For me, that’s been a magical experience, and certainly, the most rewarding part, at least so far in the project.”
Team members of the HERC from ATLAS SkillTech University strongly believe that the challenge encourages them to link their prior learning experience and theoretical concepts as they prepare for the 2025 HERC to be held in April. “For me, this competition is an excellent opportunity to apply something we’ve learned in the classroom in a real-world scenario. The idea of representing my university and my country in a competition of this scale is something that is very exciting”, adds Mr. Roy.
Mr. Shahani highlights several life lessons such competitions impart, “The ability to take a risk, fail fast, but succeed for sure – those learnings are far deeper than 100 technical things around design, around science, around innovation, but really if they can learn that, they can take that dream to reality, then they will be unstoppable.”
Spoiler alert on scams
While NASA offers many learning opportunities, engaging and exploring, experts sound a note of caution against scams, where people pose as being affiliated to NASA and make money for ‘competitions’, or offer trips to NASA museums. “Anyone can visit NASA museums. Trips to NASA are usually visits to the museums or science centres established by NASA. Some unscrupulous elements are using the gullibility of middle-class parents to swindle them. Some people also offer the winners trips to ISRO. Again, the ISRO space museum is open to all. Parents, schools, and students must verify who the organisers are and what their actual connection is with ISRO, NASA, and so on”, says Dr. Venkatesawaran.
Dr.Venkateswaran explains why NASA-led programs are so popular. “Professional science communicators and educators are involved in developing and delivering the programmes, which is why we see certain qualities in NASA’s outreach programs.” He suggests, “The ISRO must set aside a fixed percentage of the budget, not view outreach as PR for ISRO or the leaders in the government, but as actual public education and communication. The ISRO must also consider establishing a separate office to coordinate with schools and children to provide timely information on the opportunities offered.”
(The author is a science educator, communicator, and facilitator. )
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