By Mr Yee, Physics Teacher

We were excited to enter a team in the UK Space Design Competition – a science, engineering and business competition designed as a simulation of life in industry. The UKSDC is open to UK students in Years 10 to 13 and gives students a taste of the vast potential offered by future study, or even a career, in STEM.

Four girls from Year 12 took part in the all-day regional design competition on Saturday 4th December.  They were Lara G, Eliza B, Pooja P and Korina S-N. They formed part of the design team that involved four other schools. The teams were given a list of requirements for a space settlement, and were tasked with coming up with a detailed design which they present to a panel of judges from industry, academia and business. The members of the schools all split up to concentrate on a separate task as part of the whole design.

The design task they were set was:

Alleras is to be an Aldrin Cycler, a vehicle which uses a carefully chosen orbit to move large masses between Earth and Mars with little expenditure of propellant. Alleras will allow for business travellers to continue working effectively and in comfort as they relocate to Mars or Earth. It will provide high-quality leisure facilities, as well as adaptable working spaces.

Our students divided into two separate tasks, with one group having to come up with viable ideas on food production – how to feed up to 1000 people, while the other group had to consider the storage of all material (biological and non-biological) which was to be used by everyone with the space vehicle.

Finally, the ideas were presented to the organisers who judged the teams on their presentation and answers to questions after their pitch. We were delighted to find out that we were the regional final winners! 

Winning teams from the regional finals will take part in the UKSDC national final in March 2022; a residential competition weekend hosted by Imperial College London! A select group of winners are then invited to go from there to the International Space Settlement Design Competition (ISSDC) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. More about UKSDC here.