inmauritius

The Mauritian space

magician in Australia
GAVNISHA BUHOOA
gavnisha.b@expattimes.mu

s the only person in

Australia to win the
'Sir Ross and Sir
Keith Smith Fund'
full scholarship to attend the
Southern Hemisphere - Space
Studies Program 2016 by the
International Space University
(ISU) in Adelaide, Ishraj
Shatirsingh Inderjeet, a 24year-old man from Triolet
Mauritius. He is a recent graduate in Bachelor of Aerospace
Engineering with Honours
from Royal Melbourne
Institute of Technology (RMIT)
University in Melbourne,
Australia. During his studies,
Ishraj led many aerospace
organisations and activities.
During his career, he executed roles such as President of
the aerospace club at RMIT
University, Victorian State
Representative for the
Australian Youth Aerospace
Association and chaired, in
2014 and 2015, the two most
successful 'Aerospace Industry
Night' conferences at RMIT
University in 20 years. Ishraj is
currently the Communications
Manager at the Royal
Aeronautical Society
(Melbourne) and National
Point of Contact for Mauritius
at the Space Generation
Advisory Council - a United
Nations Program on Space
Applications.
For his contributions to the
aerospace community, Ishraj
achieved numerous awards:
the 'NASA Space Apps 2014 Galactic Problem Solver,' the
'Boeing Prize 2012,' amongst
others. In 2013, Ishraj received
the 'International Student
Exchange Program' scholarship to go on a one-year
exchange program at Delft
University of Technology (TU
Delft) in The Netherlands.
Ishraj was one of four students in Australia to be awarded the 'Northrop Grumman
Global Externship Program
2014/15' scholarship to do an
internship at the Mount
Stromlo Observatory in

10

F R I D A Y

Canberra, designing
Australia's next Astronomy
CubeSat mission.
In the course of his journey,
Ishraj has built a strong network by meeting world-famous
personalities: NASA's Ed
Buckbee and John Connolly,
Physicist Walter Lewin, IBM
Fellow John Cohn, eminent
aerospace Professor James
Hansen, astronauts Robert
Thirsk, Jean-Jacques Favier,
Chris Hadfield and Sandra
Magnus, CEOs and Founders of
various aerospace companies
and organisations such as Dr
Robert Zubrin, Elon Musk, Dr
Joseph Pelton and Professor
Walter Peters.
Ishraj is passionate about
aerospace and education, and
advocate these areas of interest through his volunteer work.
He further added, ?To say, I
love to push myself to the limits, and do things differently!
The Southern Hemisphere Space Studies Program (SHSSP) is an intensive, five week,
live-in experience built around
an international, intercultural,

F E B R U A R Y

and interdisciplinary (3 "I"s)

educational philosophy, provided by the International Space
University (ISU), whose
Chancellor is Apollo 11 astronaut and second man on the
moon: Dr Buzz Aldrin. The program provides a multidisciplinary understanding of the key
activities and areas of knowledge required by today's space
professions, including Space
science and exploration and
Space applications and services amongst others.
Inderjeet explained," The
project SH-SSP have given me
exposure to the big names in
the space sector. It is a great
platform for networking and
building relationships with an
alumni of over 4000 astronauts
and engineers from NASA,
European Space Agency (ESA),
China National Space
Administration (CNSA), Indian
Space Research Organisation
(ISRO), amongst other space
lawyers and policy makers
from the United Nation and
European Union. Skills and
knowledge gained during this

2 0 1 6

I always envision putting

Mauritius and
Africa in the
forefront of
the space
sector in the
world. I would
bring
Mauritius in
the limelight
everywhere I
go: in aerospace conferences, webinars or social
events.

program are taught by experienced astronauts, engineers,

lawyers and policy makers of
the various space agencies and
organisations, themselves."
Speaking about your project, how is it going to bring
further development in the
space development, Inderjeet
stated, "The 2016 White Paper
Team Project will tackle two of
the most crucial, interlinked
issues facing the world in the
21st Century: growing food
insecurity and fresh water
scarcity. How can the world
provide sufficient healthy food
and fresh water to support its
increasing population? Both
are needed to sustain life."
The team project will concentrate on the following question: What can space technology, in concert with other current and emerging technologies contribute to solving the
connected problems of hunger
and growing lack of fresh
water? The White Paper will
especially address needs and
capacities within the Global
South and what those countries can do for themselves to
alleviate global hunger, in
cooperation with one another
and with spacefaring States
throughout the world. He
added, "To do so, we will
explore and develop our own
innovative approaches to solving problems related to this
broad theme, and hope to present our paper and solution in
major international conferences around the world, including the International
Astronautical Conference, UN
World Food Programme,
amongst others."
With much projects in his
mind, Inderjeet is thinking to
launch space development project as a premiere in
Mauritius. "I always envision
putting Mauritius and Africa
in the forefront of the space
sector in the world. I would
bring Mauritius in the limelight everywhere I go: in aerospace conferences, webinars or
social events. In fact, I am currently planning to bring the
prestigious International