This Pune team's drone could help India land on Mars
A team from Pune Institute of Computer Technology (PICT) has taken first place in ISRO's "Fly Me on Mars" challenge.
Their group, Galactic Gearheads, built a smart drone that can fly and navigate all on its own—no GPS needed—even in conditions similar to Mars.
This win puts their tech on the map for future Indian space missions.
The drone takes off, hovers, and lands by itself
Led by Hrushikesh Patwardhan, Nimish Satav, and Kaushal Chaudhari, the team designed a lightweight (1.7kg) drone that takes off vertically, hovers, lands itself safely, and returns to base—all using optical flow and LiDAR sensors.
They tested it in a Mars-like arena right at their college.
The drone could help with future Mars missions
In the final round, 16 teams from across India competed to make the best Martian drone—and Galactic Gearheads came out on top.
Their drone solves real problems for exploring Mars where there's no GPS.
It could help with future missions aiming for safe landings or scouting Martian terrain—building on work like NASA's Ingenuity helicopter.