Biography:Megha Wijewardane

Short description: Australian ambassador for NASA (born 2010)

Megha Wijewardane
Born	(2010-03-29) 29 March 2010 Adelaide, Australia
Education	Westminster College
Known for	The youngest ambassador for NASA
Parents	Charith Wijewardane (father) Doshanthri Ranatunge (mother)

Megha Mahima Wijewardane (born 29 March 2010) is the youngest and Australia's only ambassador for NASA. He was able to become an ambassador for NASA at the age of 9. He is an Australian who was born to Sri Lankan parents.

At a very young age, Megha had a high passion for Physics. In 2017, when he was 7 years old, he participated in the 2017 NASA Space Apps challenge and did a presentation on the atmosphere of Earth. There he won the Northrop Grumman Prize by competing with university students and aerospace engineers. Back in 2018, Megha participated in NASA's Space Apps challenge. He worked on a solution for the Bennu asteroid which is at risk of colliding with Earth in the future. For that, he had the opportunity to do some research on Bennu and NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission.

After that, in 2018, he participated in the ActInSpace challenge. In that challenge, he became the youngest team leader and youngest entrepreneur in Australia to start a business plan solution for science and technology. With Airbus, He did a project to find a solution to prevent Ghost ships. They presented a solution to identify ghost ships even though they have turned off their transponders.

Due to these things, He caught the attention of NASA and got an opportunity to go for a NASA ambassadorship. NASA, after checking his health conditions and social relations, offered him the position of NASA ambassador for the OSIRIS-REx mission. As he was an ambassador, the University of Arizona – LPL (Luna and Planetary Laboratory) offered him training. He was able to complete their training intelligently by scoring 100% marks on some of their tests.

Early life

Megha Wijewardhane was born on 29 March 2010 in Adelaide, Australia. He is an Australian of Sri Lankan origin. He is the son of creative designer Charith Wijewardane and the CEO of Chakra FM Doshanthri Ranatunge. His grandfather is a famous Sri Lankan newspaper comic artist Anura Wijewardane. There is an interesting story behind how Megha got his name. "Megha" is one of Anura Wijewardane's famous comic storybooks.

His early life was quite different from that of a regular kid. He read his first letter when he was 6 months old. Since then, he has read many books. But he did not like to read non-fictional books therefore most of the books that he referred to are related to Science, Physics, and Mathematics. He said books are his best friends. His curiosity about the sky, world, and the universe began after reading Genesis from the bible. So, he thought to explore the universe. Because of his immense curiosity, Megha continuously asked so many questions about astronomy from his parents, but they did not have a profound knowledge of science and they were unable to answer some of his questions. So, they referred Megha to his grandfather (his mother's father) because he had learned science in his school. There, he got the answers to his curiosities.

When he was 1.5 years old, he read Einstein's theory of relativity. Likewise, as he was reading more books and searching the information about the world he found that NASA is doing many types of research on astronomical objects and creating many spaceships. So, he wanted to join NASA and work there when he was just 2 years old. Then he was encouraged by his parents who conveyed an imaginary message from NASA, "We will recruit you if you study and read more books". At the age of 4 years old, he started doing an Astronomy course at South Australian University. After school, he attended NASA public mini-lectures and got the opportunity to meet NASA scientists and NASA astronauts. The doctor's opinion about this extraordinary boy is his brain has grown 5 years older than his age.

Once he mentioned that in his first school, it was very hard to find someone with whom he could talk. He said that other children would run away fearing he would start talking about quantum physics or classical physics or Mathematics. They discriminated against him and called him an alien from Jupiter. But he did not let the bullies get him down and his parents made him stronger. To make sure that he was not lonely his mother included a letter with his lunch box which contained some interesting questions about physics. Even though he was excluded by school students as they underestimated his sports abilities, he was the 100 meters champion for his age and he was the chess champion.

Later, he was admitted to Westminster College, Australia. This opened an effective path for his development. As he was an excellent student, he had different needs so the school masters attempted to introduce a different education pattern for him. When he was 10 years old, he was not only a school student but also a university student. He was selected to study at the University of Flinders to study physics with 18 and 19 years old students in the science and Mathematics division sector.

After winning the 2017 NASA Space Apps Challenge and participating 2018 NASA Space Apps Challenge and ActInSpace Challenge he gained the NASA ambassadorship for the OSIRIS-REx mission of NASA at the age of 9. Again in 2019, he participated NASA Space Apps challenge as the leader of 7 members. They built an innovative platform to save people who are highly exposed to natural disasters using NASA live satellite data. There they introduced an app called "Megha Naada" which can early warn before floods.

He has earned many awards and collected great knowledge in his life and his ambition is to be a rocket scientist for NASA. He said, "I will explore the universe staying on Earth, I can’t leave it."

Working as an ambassador

Mission logo for the OSIRIS-REx mission

He is Australia's only junior NASA ambassador for NASA's mission OSIRIS-REx. Mission OSIRIS-REx is to save Earth from the potential hazard asteroid, Bennu which is at risk of colliding with Earth in the future. So, this "little" boy is planning to save the earth in the future.

This view of asteroid 101955 Bennu has been cropped from the original image.

He got the opportunity to be in the team mapping and conveying an area to execute the mission of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.

As the ambassador for Australia, he is involved in communications for Australia with the mission OSIRIS-REx. He has the opportunity to access any news about the mission first-hand before it goes public and he shares the updated information with the public. Therefore, he participates in space summits, and visits schools, universities, astronomical clubs and events to share information about the mission OSIRIS-REx.

Abilities and social services

Even though, at an early age Megha studied physics and mathematics he has many other abilities. From a very young, he did engage in many creative activities such as singing songs, creating handicrafts , and drawing with his parents and his grandmother Pushpa Ranathunga. Therefore, he has not only scientific knowledge but also aesthetic skills.

He is clever at music. At the age of 3, he started learning to play drums and piano. Besides that, he can play flute, violin, guitar, and accordion. He is a member of his school choir. He is good at sports too. He was 100 meters champion in his age level and the chess champion of his school. He is the opening batsman of the school cricket team. He has played karate and he can swim in breaststroke and backstroke.

He is a member of the future problem-solving club in his school and he is a good programmer as he can write programs using C++ and Python. But he asserted that he does not play video games and he does not overuse digital devices.

He had been learning to fly planes with Airbus at a very young age. So, he can fly small planes. The Adelaide flight training school has given him access to computer-based learning. He aims to get a pilot license aged 15 and a commercial pilot license aged 19.

With these abilities, he has won many medals in Science and Mathematics and gained some badges representing NASA space missions.

He has been conducting many lectures in physics, science, mathematics, and astronomy for university students, scientists, and school students. He has a YouTube channel to share his knowledge. In 2020, He had been developing apps to learn physics, chemistry, and Mathematics. As he is of Sri Lankan origin, he loves Sri Lanka. So, he created Megha Force to help Sri Lankan students and impart knowledge on astrophysics and physics.

External links

• NASA
• NASA's mission OSIRIS-REx