New Delhi: In yet another recognition of India's scientific genius, a 14-year-old Delhi boy has been chosen as a "Student Astronaut" to participate in NASA's ongoing project on Mars exploration.

Saatvik Agarwal, a standard X student at Amity International School in South Delhi, is among the 16 students selected from all over the world through a global contest and would spend about two weeks at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory - NASA's lead centre for robotic exploration of the solar system based at Pasadena, California.

He will work together with NASA scientists and other Student Astronauts as part of the Science Operations Working Group between January-March 2004.

To prepare for his stint at NASA, Saatvik is undergoing intensive Web-based training about the US agency's Mars exploration mission "Red Rover Goes to Mars" besides Mars science, digital image processing and mission operations.

Saatvik, son of an Internet consultant Rajeev Aggarwal, was selected through a global contest organised by the US-based "Planetary Society", a space interest group, in an initiative to involve young minds in NASA's mission to Mars.

The boy had earlier won the "Original Mind" award instituted by Infosys Foundation and an award for his Website on space, given by Kiran Bedi's India Vision Foundation.

PTI