To infinity and beyond

It is said that the final frontier for man is space itself. The most challenging and daunting places one could possibly go to; where trepidation runs rife. At the same time, it is also a dream that many of us share. Let us assure you that it is not an easy task when it comes to making equipment or planning missions that take us beyond the realm of our world into the vast expanse that is the Universe. With meticulous work and immense amount of thought being put in by numerous research companies, vying for the contracts that run into billions of dollars, it is one of the few things that guarantee unparalleled fame, as well as fortune. Well, the students of Amity School, Noida seem to be inching closer to an opportunity somewhat similar!

The International Space Settlement Design Competition or ISSDC as it known, is a contest that puts high school students in the shoes of aerospace industry engineers designing a city in space that will be a home for over 10,000 people. Student engineers demonstrate creativity, technical competence, management skills, space environment knowledge, teamwork, and presentation techniques to conquer the problems inherent in citing and designing a Space Settlement or Space Colony. Almost akin to the final scene of Interstellar, where we saw Matthew Mcconaughey wake up in a hospital in the station called ‘Cooper Station’ in the future, this competition takes place in a simulated future year. Technological advancements beyond the current state of the art have accrued. The contents of these links describe technologies the judges will accept in one’s design. Any other technologies assumed in a team’s design must be fully justified (for example, if one plans to use `warp drive', one must explain how it is constructed).

Every year, two teams from Asia are selected to compete with 10 other teams from the world during Asian Regional Space Settlement Design Competition (ARSSD). The proposal from the children of Amity demonstrated creativity, technical competence, management skills, space environment knowledge and a sense of teamwork along with great presentation techniques to design a space colony in the cycler Orbit around Earth
and Mars.

Metrolife managed to catch up with Dhruv Khanna, a student of class XI at Amity and also one of the two members of the team who has been a part of this experience in the past. “This is the second time I have entered the competition and every year it is a different experience. While I was not as involved as I would have liked last time around, this time the circumstances were highly demanding” said Khanna. “What I learned though was how to work in a team and also how to lead when the hour came for me to do so” he went on to add.

Having overcome the first hurdle, the children from Amity now face an even sterner test when they go head to head against the other 11 teams of the world in the final that will be held in Florida later this year. Each team in the finals will compete with a new scenario in a live Competition at NASA, with real engineers sharing their knowledge and experience in both engineering and management. The teams will have to work on the given project in 43 hours and present it to the judges, which is anything but child’s play. Here’s hoping that they do the nation proud.