A group of 12 students from the Amity International School has won the prestigious 20th Annual International Space Settlement Design Competition, 2015, held at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. The Amity team of Class X students have designed two main settlements and four outlying settlements to accommodate a population of 24,000 as well as a transient of 3,000 more on Mars using a transparent material, ‘Aluminium Oxinitride’.
The International Space Settlement Design Competition is fully supported by NASA. This is a prestigious, 22-year-old contest meant for high school students across the globe. In the competition, the organizers sets students a challenge which they must solve in conditions very like that in the actual aerospace industry. This year, the challenge for the students was to design a space colony in Mars that could house over 10,000 people. Among the all submissions, the Amity students’ design has been chosen the best.
- Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. Named after the Roman god of war, and often described as the “Red Planet” due to its reddish appearance.
- Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere composed primarily of carbon dioxide.
- Mars is home to the tallest mountain in the solar system. Olympus Mons, a shield volcano, is 21km high and 600 km in diameter.
- Mars has the largest dust storms in the solar system.
- NASA is planning to send InSight robotic lander mission, slated for launch in March 2016 and a planned arrival in September, 2016.
Test Your Knowledge
Name the Space Agency which is currently developing ExoMars Project?
