Boeing Sponsors Local High School Team
Once again the imaginations of many
space exploration enthusiasts are running full-throttle with the
two recent high-profiled launches of Boeing Delta II rockets
carrying six-wheeled robot rovers -- Spirit and
Opportunity -- bound for Mars.
Terraformers decked in space suits trekking across the desert
sand on the Red Planet to reach a bio-domed habitat they call home
seems more plausible for some these days.
Especially for 96 high school teenagers who are using the
successful NASA Mars missions for inspiration as they prepare for
the 10th Annual International Space Settlement Design Competition
at Kennedy Space Center (FL).
A team of students from
Houston-area Clear Creek High School is joining seven other high
school finalist teams from Colorado, California, Florida, Texas,
Maryland and Australia in a competition to design a Mars
settlement.
The Clear Creek team from League City (TX) is
representing the state for the fourth time during the competition,
which runs from July 12-14. The local nine-member team has
alternate students from Cypress Fairbanks, Memorial and Carnegie
Vanguard high schools. Boeing NASA Systems, headquartered in
Houston and a business unit of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems,
is the team's sponsor.
The competition is sponsored by the American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), an organization
dedicated to advancing the arts, sciences, and aeronautics and
astronautics technology. Anita Gale, competition co-founder and a
Shuttle engineer for Boeing says, "This competition provides an
avenue for students to showcase their creativity and ingenuity, and
in return shows the students what it is like to work in the
aerospace industry."
During the three-day international meet, the eight teams will be
paired, given corporate identities and asked to compete with other
paired teams to prepare the best design proposal. Each paired team
will act as an independent aerospace company vying for a contract
with the AIAA to design a settlement on Mars.
The contest emulates, as closely as possible, the
experience of working on an industry proposal team with
participants utilizing engineering, technical and management
skills. And not unlike the engineering wizardry that created the
Mars rovers and the Delta rockets that launched them, the students
have to use sound science to support their design.
Designs must meet the test of staying within the bounds of
anticipated technology and obeying the laws of physics. Realism is
emphasized, so not only must proposals include descriptions of the
structure and amenities for the people living at the settlement but
also cost and scheduling estimates for construction; and just as in
real life, the students work with people they've just met, argue
over technical issues, disagree with management. They will work
hard, get tired, and have fun.
Students have access to such resources as technical papers,
computers and a library to develop their design proposals as well
as volunteer structural, operations, and human and automation
engineering advisors from the industry.