Send Your Innovative Payload Into ‘Near Space’ Through Rajasthan’s Balloon Challenge

“No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.” — William Blake

If you are enthralled by the beauty of space and have the power of innovation and creation, we’ve got some exciting news for you.

The Rajasthan government, which is leading innovation in many areas including technology, in collaboration with Space Kidz India, is organising an International Balloon Challenge on July 25-26, 2018.

The Balloon Challenge, a tribute to former President and celebrated scientist, the late Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, has the motto of ‘Dream. Imagine. Believe’. The challenge offers anyone below 21 years the opportunity to send their payload into “near space” in a balloon.

The event will be hosted during a three-day technology carnival — Rajasthan Digifest 2018 from July 25-27 — which will offer insightful workshops and varied exciting events for participants including startups, innovators, students, and investors.

In layman terms, a space Payload is basically a satellite that may include cargo, passengers, flight crew, munitions, scientific instruments, experiments, or other equipment. The challenge here for the participants is to build a working model of a payload to be flown into “near space” in a helium balloon from Bikaner.

Apart from the fact that you need to come up with an original idea for the payload, here are some ground rules for the Balloon Challenge that you need to know:

• The payload must fit inside a 1U Cube3 and the weight should be a maximum of 500 gm including the battery
• No hazardous chemicals are allowed
• Biological experiments containing living macro-organisms are not allowed
• Plagiarism can get you eliminated and permanently banned from participating in any future competitions
• The payloads of selected winners should arrive on or before July 20, 2018, at the following address: Space Kidz India, No. 1-B, Nutech Narayana Apartments, 48, Thirumalai Pillai Road, T Nagar, Chennai 600 017, Tamil Nadu, India
• Winners can also come directly and fly their payload
• Accommodation and food facility for teams coming directly will be provided for two days.

If you are ready to showcase your innovation and creative skills, this is the competition for you. Entries are open till July 5, 2018. Click here for more information.

Interested candidates can apply here!

The Tech-First Events Of The Rajasthan Government

The Rajasthan government has been leading digitisation of the state through initiatives to foster innovation and technological development. The state has been a frontrunner in organising events to promote use cases of technology and bring unique ideas to the limelight. It supports these innovative ideas and startups with grants, projects, and a many more programmes.

Rajasthan is also organising the Code-From-Home Online Hackathon, a part of its Challenge for Change, which is open to any coder, developer, designer, or anyone who enjoys building technology solutions. The winner of the hackathon will receive prizes such as iPads, tablets, laptops, smartphone etc. Those ones who successfully complete the mandatory 15-hour hackathon will also get a direct entry into Rajasthan Hackathon 5.0 — all expenses paid — which shall be organised in Bikaner on July 26-27, 2018, during Digifest Bikaner.

Earlier, Rajasthan Digifest, a two-day mega event, was organised in Kota and Udaipur in 2017. It provided a platform to innovators from the fields of IT and e-governance to showcase their skills and ideas. Some of the major highlights of the event were a 24-hour mega-hackathon for startups and Investor Connect. The participants also got a chance to build tech solutions for the Rajasthan government’s initiatives such as Bhamashah Yojana and e-Mitra as well as applications to promote state tourism.

The Balloon Challenge, the Rajasthan government’s bid to expand its innovation challenges, will provide a chance to all young space lovers to enter their dream world.

Interested candidates can apply here!