Overview: Upliftment of Space Technology and Astronomy Cell in Himalayas, India

Space Technology and Astronomy Cell (STAC) is a group of students at IIT Mandi in Himalayas, India responsible for establishing a culture of Astronomy in the institute, nearby village Kamand, schools and colleges.We organize AstraX (https://astrax.in) which is inter-college Astromeet of Himalayas. Bringing together space science and technology, AstraX is the one and only of it’s kind marked by the acing competitions, prodigious talks, lauded workshops and much more.

Having a small budget, we have to limit our outreach activities, projects and sessions to one college and area. Our aim is to spread the culture of astronomy in Himalayas via expanding our activities. Our target audience compriese of locals of Himalayan Valley, college undergraduates of Himachal Pradesh and school students.Splitting what we aim to achieve:1) Introduce people to remote telescope observations, in the pandemic due to restricted social interactions.2) A Server for managing and running open-source projects in astropysics (https://github.com/STAC-IITMandi).3) A BalloonSatellite project involving college students across the district, which will introuduce people to Space Technology and collaborative work, and will be used for remote mapping of agricultral land of Himalyan farmers. We aim to keep it open source and data will be freely accessible to everyone.4) Improved equipment and small telescopes to conduct observations sessions in the village.5) Educational trip to ARIES observatory and labs across India.6) Organize datathons inviting students from other institutes for building solutions using satellite data.7) Remote and onsite sessions on basic astronomy in Mandi, Kullu and Manali districts of India.8) Collaboration with local primary schools to introduce them solar cycle observations, using solar filters, etc.9) Introduce locals to astro-tourism for income generation, as we are blessed with clear night skies.

Our website: https://stac-iitmand.org

Contact: Abhijeet Manhas, b18043@students.iitmandi.ac.in