A team from Jalandhar-based Apeejay School has won the gold medal in a "Space Settlement Design Competition" organised by National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Houston in the US.

The 15-member team's achievement at the competition held during July 14-18 became known after Neeraj Kohli, the technical advisor of the team, sent a message to his parents at Solan in Himachal Pradesh.

"Planning a colony on Mars [Images]" was the theme of the project prepared by the Indian team, which competed with eight others from around the world. An Appejay alumnus, the 21-year Kohli is a final year student at J P University of Information Technology at Vaknaghat. The budding space scientist said in his message to his parents that he and his team worked very hard for days to earn this honour.

After winning the gold, the team was asked to stay on in the US by NASA [Images] till July 27. The team members will be acquainted with information regarding space technology. Kohli's elated father Balraj Sahni said he had always been very confident that his son would do well in the competition.