Space Settlement Design Contest on display at Ames ERC

This annual contest is for 6-12th graders (11-18 years old) from anywhere in the world. Individuals, small teams of two to six, and large teams of seven or more (often whole classrooms with teacher leadership) may enter. Grades 6-9 and 10-12 are judged separately, except for the grand prize. Students develop space settlement designs and related materials. These are sent to NASA Ames for judgement. Submissions must be received by March 31, 2007. Check out the results of the 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 , 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 contests. contests. Teachers are encouraged to use this contest as part of their curriculum. See the space settlement teacher's page and visit the Ames Educator Resource Center for more contest information.

Contest prizes and certificates:

• All participants will receive a certificate.
• The best submission wins the grand prize. This space colony design will be placed on the NASA Ames World Wide Web site.
• Contest categories are individual 6-9 grade, small group 6-9 grade, large group 6-9 grade, individual 10-12 grade, small group 10-12 grade, and large group 10-12 grade. An additional category based on artistic and literary merit is also included in the contest.

Student Art Gallery

Use on line contest entry form and send hard copy of your work to:

Bryan Yager

MS 236-7

NASA Ames Research Center

Moffett Field, CA 94035

by March 31, 2007.

Teachers using the contest in their class should submit all projects together. Note: electronic submission is not allowed, only hard copy.

Discussion

Space colonies are permanent communities in orbit, as opposed to living on the Moon or other planets. The work of Princeton physicist Dr. O'Neill and others have shown that such colonies are technically feasible, although expensive. Settlers of this high frontier are expected to live inside large air-tight rotating structures holding hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people along with the animals, plants, and single celled organisms vital to comfort and survival. There are many advantages to living in orbit: zero-g recreation, environmental independence, plentiful solar energy, and terrific views to name a few. There is plenty of room for everyone who wants to go; the materials from a single asteroid can build space colonies with living space equal to about 500 times the surface area of the Earth.

Why should colonies be in orbit? Mars and our Moon have a surface gravity far below Earth normal. Children raised in low-g will not develop bones and muscles strong enough to visit Earth comfortably. In contrast, orbital colonies can be rotated to provide Earth normal pseudo-gravity in the main living areas.

We hope teachers will make this contest part of their lesson plan. While designing a space colony, students will have a chance to study physics, mathematics, space science, environmental science, and many other disciplines. We would like students outside the science classes to participate as well. Thus, contest submissions may include designs, essays, stories, models, and artwork. Students can design entire colonies or focus on one aspect of orbital living. A class or school may submit a joint project where small teams tackle different areas in a coordinated fashion. For example, consider a cross curriculum project where science classes design the basic structure and support systems, art students create pictures of the interior and exterior, English students write related short stories, social studies students develop government and social systems, Industrial Technology builds a scale model, and the football team proposes low-g sports.

Schools and teachers may consider ongoing multi-year projects; each year's students add detail to a space colony design that becomes part of the school or class portfolio. In this case, teachers assign students to different parts of the design, gradually building a more and more complete and practical space colony concept. Each year the project can be submitted to the contest.

Other Space Settlement Contests

There are at least three ongoing space settlement contests open to students:

• The International High School Space Settlement Design Competition, which includes some training materials.
• The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Annual Contest: Spaceset

and ours.

To the space settlement home page.

Curators: Al Globus and Bryan Yager
NASA Responsible Official: Dr. Ruth Globus		Last Updated: January 31, 2007
If you have problems accessing the information on this site, please contact access@mail.arc.nasa.gov. If you find any errors on this page contact Bryan Yager.