2003 Space Settlement Design Contest Award Winners tour Ames.
More than 30 students, teachers and parents spent Monday June 16th touring Ames. The students were award winners in the tenth annual Space Settlement Design contest. This year’s contest included entries from over 325 students with 25 teachers assisting. Submissions came from Austria, India, Japan, Romania and 12 states. The grand prize went to two students from Iasi, Romania for their submission Teba 1, Horia Mihail Teodorescu and Lucian Gabriel Bahrin are middle school students of teacher Prof. Horia Nicolai Teodorescu.. For contest results and details see: http://lifesci3.arc.nasa.gov/SpaceSettlement/Contest/Results/2003.
The students participated in activities at the Visitor Center in the morning. Mike Reeves offered an outstanding presentation covering the history and research projects at Ames. This was followed by a student presentation by the team Asgard. These students from Mission High School in Fremont, CA. placed first in the 10th-12th grade division and provided a comprehensive and creative view of their award winning design.
The students then were given a overview of the 120 X 80 wind tunnel and then were escorted to the Future Flight Central by Chris Roden, Marilyn DaCosta, Wenonah Vercoutere and David Kao. Here Nancy Tucker provided a view of the Mars database, Arctic images sent back from the Haughton crater, a Mars analog site (on Earth) as well as a demo of runway operations at SFO and LAX . An added highlight was a simulated landing of the orbiter at KSC.
The students were treated to lunch at the Ames Café where they were presented
with award packets from Victoria Callor of Life Sciences, which included follow up materials and activities supporting their visit.
Victoria Callor, Jennifer Hsu and MarryEllen Eglington then escorted the visitors to the 20-G Centrifuge for a dynamic presentation by Duncan Atchison. Shahan Spratt offered the students a detailed view of logistics and hardware design used in the space lab in the high bay in building 240. The students were then escorted to Building T27A by Marilyn DaCosta and were introduced to the hyperwall by developer Chris Henze. Dr. Henze imported several data sets including the Mars site, Olympus Mons and protein-assisted nano-scale engineering leaving the students with a glimpse into the future. David Kao also presented visualization data sets and animations of the V-22 which were well received by the students. The Space Settlement Design Award winners concluded their tour of Ames in building 258. Gina Morello-Ficcadenti and Marcia Redmond presented a dynamic view of the visualization and computer labs, which inspired many questions from the students. The students were also provided blinking NASA pendants as a memento of their tour from Gina and Marcia.
Credit goes to all Ames volunteers who provided support in providing this exciting and unique educational experience that truly reflects the thoughts and words of NASA’s Chief Administrator Sean O’Keefe. “The greatest mission this Agency has ever accepted is helping to open the mind of a child to unimagined possibilities.”
Special thanks to Al Globus, BJ Navarro, Dr. Ruth Globus and Dr. Charles Wade for their support in making this an unforgettable experience for the students.
The contest is divided into two separate categories, 6th-9th and 10th-12th grade divisions.
Students design their space settlements and related materials and then submit their entries to Ames for judging. Teachers use the contest as an instructional thematic in their science curriculum. The contest promotes team building, space physics and project-web based learning in addition to addressing national science standards.
Space colonies are seen as 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 the high frontier are expected to live inside large air-tight rotating structures holding hundreds, thousands or even millions of people along with 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 of the earth. Entries for next year’s contest will be due on March 31, 2004. Encourage your children and teachers to participate. Materials that support space settlement activities may be found at; http://lifesci3.arc.nasa.gov/SpaceSettlement/teacher/. The contest and related web page are funded and operated by Code SL.
See picture attached of award winners poised to begin their day at Ames.
Author: Bryan C. Yager
Photograpgh by Bryan C. Yager