Look Around
Go outside and find a real problem in your area — something that affects real people. Something you can see, photograph, and ask questions about.
Themes
Find a real problem worth solving.
Find a real problem near you, discover which satellite already sees it, and show the connection in your own words. No coding, no lab, no prototype — only observation, curiosity and clear thinking.
Look Around · Look Up · Connect the Two
Ground rules
How this challenge works
Your problem should be specific enough to point to on a map — a particular street, lake, market, farm or junction. Then find the satellite that can see, measure or track it.
Look Up
Satellites are already watching that same problem from space — taking pictures of flooded streets, checking crop health, tracking pollution in rivers, or warning fishermen about cyclones.
Connect the Two
Show the link: how a specific space technology connects to your specific problem, and what could change if someone used that connection.
This counts
- A street that waterlogs every monsoon
- A lake that has visibly shrunk over the years
- Garbage being burnt in the open near homes
- A village with no reliable mobile network
- Farmland slowly lost to new construction
This doesn't
- “My phone battery dies too fast”
- “I don't like my school uniform”
These are personal preferences, not problems a satellite could help a community with.
Closer than you think
Space technology is already around you
It is not something that happens only at rocket launch sites. It is working quietly in the background of things you do and see every day.
Weather forecasts
The forecast your family checks every morning comes from INSAT satellites flying 36,000 km above India. When the news warns of a cyclone two days before it hits, that warning starts in space.
Navigation
When someone opens a map to find a route, it works because of satellites circling the Earth. India has its own navigation system called NavIC, built by ISRO.
Disaster response
When the news shows a satellite photo of a flooded city with affected areas marked in colour, that image helps rescue teams know which areas to reach first.
Farming
When farmers get SMS alerts about when to harvest or when a pest attack is expected, that information often comes from satellite images that show crop health from space, field by field.
Space technology is not about going to space. It is about using what is already up there — satellites, sensors, navigation systems — to solve problems down here, in your neighbourhood, in your state.
Your toolkit
Four types of space technology
You do not need to become an expert in any of them — just know what each one does.
Earth observation
Satellites that take pictures of the ground from space — detailed enough to see individual fields, lakes and buildings. Andhra Pradesh's own AWARE platform uses this data in 42 government applications, from crop monitoring to disaster response.
Weather satellites
They track storms, rainfall, temperature and clouds in real time. India's INSAT satellites are the reason cyclone warnings now reach the AP coast 48–72 hours before the storm hits.
Navigation (NavIC)
They tell any device exactly where it is on Earth. ISRO's GAGAN system sends cyclone alerts directly to fishermen at sea through a small handheld device called GEMINI.
Satellite communication
Internet and phone connections where towers and cables cannot reach. Remote villages, disaster zones, ships at sea — SatCom keeps these places connected.
Ask yourself — which one of these can see, measure, or track the problem I found?
Where to look
The five themes
Each theme covers a broad area where space technology is already being used. These are starting points, not boundaries — a water problem might also be a climate problem, and the best ideas often sit where two or three themes overlap.
From the ground to space
What Visakhapatnam did once someone started counting the drains
A team of students at RK Beach noticed patches of dark, almost black sand near the waterline. A tea seller told them a drain nearby had been bringing dirty water straight into the sea for months. They found the drain and photographed the greyish water flowing out of it.
On satellite images of the same coastline, they spotted what they could not see from the ground — dark streaks entering the water at several points along the coast, not just the one drain. Because satellites photograph coastlines regularly, these streaks can be tracked over weeks and months.
Along the Visakhapatnam coast, 41 drains were carrying untreated sewage straight into the sea. Once this was tracked and documented, the city closed 18 of those drains and diverted the sewage to treatment plants. Observation became evidence — and evidence pushed the city to act.
See for yourself
Explore satellite data yourself
These platforms make satellite data available to the public. They exist so you know what is out there — using them is not a requirement for the challenge.
ISRO Bhuvan
bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in
India's own satellite image portal — satellite pictures of any part of India, with maps showing land use, water bodies, and how areas have changed over time.
Google Earth
earth.google.com
Satellite images with a time slider that lets you compare how an area looked five or ten years ago versus today.
AP AWARE Platform
aware.ap.gov.in
Government of Andhra Pradesh's platform that applies satellite data to real applications — crop monitoring, disaster response and more.
Before you start
Important notes for students
Starting points, not boundaries
Your idea does not have to fit neatly into one theme. A water problem might also be a climate problem — the best ideas often sit where two or three themes overlap.
Examples are inspiration
The examples show how space technology is already used in the real world. You do not need to match their complexity — explore what else falls under each theme on your own.
Team composition
Teams of 3–4 students. A faculty mentor is welcome but not mandatory.
Submission format
Your submission is a PowerPoint presentation. Detailed guidelines follow in a separate document.
Found your problem?
Form a team of 3–4, look around your own city, look up at what the satellites already see — and tell the story of the connection.
Register here