An IIT Kharagpur student's AI guardian for space debris just won India's Space for Good challenge

Orbit is getting crowded, and a collision-avoidance decision that takes hours can come too late. Adeetya Uppal, a fourth-year aerospace engineering student at IIT Kharagpur from Navi Mumbai, has a faster idea: DRISHTI, an AI guardian that autonomously spots threatening space debris, works out the safest dodge, and sends the command over a satellite network — cutting response times from hours to seconds, saving fuel and protecting the satellites that carry the world's communications, navigation and disaster warnings. A panel of space industry experts, government representatives and satellite leaders picked DRISHTI as the winner of the Viasat Space for Good India Challenge 2026 in New Delhi, awarding Uppal ₹5 lakh (500,000) (about $5,300) to develop it further. The six finalists tackled everything from satellite disaster warnings to crop health watched from orbit.

SDG 9 · Industry, innovation and infrastructure — Mechanism: tech innovation