NASA Space Apps Challenge 2025: Chennai team wins global award for satellite internet concept

Washington: A team of innovators from Chennai has achieved global recognition at NASA’s 2025 International Space Apps Challenge, securing a top prize for a concept designed to bridge the digital divide. The group, competing under the name ‘Photonics Odyssey’, was declared the global winner of the ‘Most Inspirational Award’ for proposing a sovereign, phased-array satellite internet infrastructure.

The team's winning project reimagines satellite internet as a critical national public utility rather than a private commercial service. By reducing reliance on traditional ground-based infrastructure, the concept aims to provide broadband access to over 700 million people in India who are currently unconnected. The winning members—Manish D., M. K., Prasanth G., Rajalingam N., Rashi M., and Sakthi R.—were selected by judges from NASA and its partner organisations for the project’s visionary approach to connectivity.

The 2025 edition of the hackathon was described by the US space agency as one of its most significant international STEM collaborations to date. The event witnessed massive global engagement, drawing over 114,000 participants across 551 local events in 167 countries. From a pool of more than 11,500 submissions, the Indian team emerged as a standout, alongside several other groups featuring members of the Indian diaspora.

Reflecting the strong footprint of Indian talent in global science, the ‘Best Use of Data Award’ went to a US-based team called ‘Resonant Exoplanets’, which included Indian-American students Adhvaidh S., Gabriel S., Jack A., and Sahil S. They developed an AI-driven system capable of processing vast amounts of data from missions like the James Webb Space Telescope. Their tool automates the analysis of spectra to identify exoplanets and potential biosignatures, a task that traditionally requires manual effort.

Another accolades went to ‘Astro Sweepers’, a team featuring Indian-origin innovators Harshiv T., Pragathy S., Pratik J., Sherlin D., Yousra H., and Zienab E., who secured the ‘Galactic Impact Award’. Their project tackled the environmental challenges of the commercial space age by developing an orbital debris compliance platform. The system uses public orbital data to generate risk assessments for objects in low Earth orbit.

Karen St. Germain, Director of NASA’s Earth Science Division, noted that the competition is designed to place the agency’s free and open data directly into the hands of explorers worldwide. Since its launch in 2012, the initiative has evolved into one of the largest collaborative platforms for solving real-world problems through open innovation.

(Inputs from IANS)