Over the course of last year, the Haberdashers’ Elstree team won the Regional and National Space Design Competition. Girls’ School student, Keshni, was then invited to be a member of the UK team at the International finals. This meant that at the end of July 2022, Keshni travelled to Florida, along with the other 11 members of the UK team, to compete in the International Space Settlement Design Ccmpetition.
The UK team worked non-stop for 45 hours with teams from Argentina, India and America, in Kennedy Space Centre during the day and at their hotel overnight. Their task this year was to design a moving settlement on Mercury that could hold up to 9,000 passengers. It had to stay within the terminator lines on Mercury (sunrise or sunset lines) and followed a specific, predetermined route.
The competition ended with presentations from the four companies (groups of different country teams) about each of the final designs. These presentations contained up to 50 slides and lasted for 35 minutes followed by questions. During this, the teams had to show how the settlement they had designed met all requirements and why it would be the best out of all four proposed solutions.
After many hours of judging, it was revealed that Keshni’s team had won! This was a fantastic opportunity and we are very proud of Keshni’s achievements. Well done!
