Sparsh Bhowmick of Greenwood High International School has launched his own website– www.letsexplorespace.com on space-related matters. Through this website, the 11-year-old, Grade 5 student provides the latest news on different space missions at one place.

Sparsh has blogged about the SpaceX flight to the International Space Station (ISS), India’s future attempt to soft land on moon through Chandrayaan-3, US astronaut Sunita Williams’ flight to space, India’s Gaganyaan mission and other space-related topics.

What inspired him to to set up a website on space?

“I love space and want to learn anything and everything about space, and I even want to be an astronaut one day! That is also another reason I made this blog. I also like movies related to Space like Martian and Star Wars. ‘Let’s Explore Space’ was made also because there are a lot of things we humans are doing to explore space. But when I wanted to read about these, I couldn’t find a single source of information that tells me all about a mission. To get to know the smallest details, I had to watch entire videos that are about 8 – 10 minutes long. So, I made this blog where you can know what the space agencies are doing in just a 1-minute read!” says Sparsh Bhowmick. His other interests include hockey, cricket and football.

He created this website from scratch – getting some initial tips from his friends and family and then exploring resources from the internet. He invested Rs.550 from the prize money he received for winning a recent drawing competition to purchase the domain name. It was his way of proudly saying that his venture is fully self-funded! Sparsh’s parents fueled his passion further and introduced him to more advanced topics likes ‘search engine optimization’ and ‘web analytics’. He regularly tracks his site’s performance and works on technical improvements in addition to blog content.

Space science has always been very close to his heart. He follows international news on the topic and has an independent perspective on developments. Sometimes Sparsh Bhowmickgets into great technical details that it is tough even for his parents to keep up with him on the numbers and facts ! He was heartbroken when Chandrayaan-2 mission with the rover Vikram failed to land on the moon. He however felt a deep sense of gratitude towards the Chairman of ISRO, K Sivan, for leading an ambitious space mission from India at fraction of the cost compared to western space agencies.

Sparsh Bhowmick wants to study space science in future and he has already identified a few premier institutes he would target to get into after his IB diploma. It is his quest for science and space research that took him to IISC, Bangalore Open Day in Feb’20 where he got an opportunity to see many scientific developments as well as interact with scientists from ISRO who are doing advance research at the institute. 

In a recent school exhibition, he chose “fire as the fuel-enabling space quest” and crafted a model of ISRO PSLV rocket. Sparsh is confident that ISRO will lead the world to novel space exploration with a commitment to low-cost space exploration.

Niru Agarwal, Trustee, Greenwood High said: “I am proud of Sparsh’s talent. It is important to be engaged in an activity that is both productive and creative especially during the lockdown when there is a lot of time in hand. His effort is worth emulating and I would like to see more students doing this. Greenwood High has always encouraged creative efforts and will continue with that tradition. I wish him the best in all his future endeavours.”