The International Space Settlement Design Competition (ISSDC) is simultaneously one of the most exciting and challenging competitions for high schoolers in the world and is conducted annually by a partnership of Aerospace Education Competitions and the National Space Society, a global organization based in USA advocating for space settlements. And after years of preparing, when you scale the summit by being declared as the winning team, it is certainly giving you a high of multidisciplinary knowledge and an industry exposure early on.
That was exactly how the team of 10 students from Amity School, Pushp Vihar (Delhi), who after winning ISSDC in the last week of July felt after their school organized a press conference on Aug 8 to discuss their feat. The students namely Samaya Chauhan (class XI), Akshita Bhandari (XII), Dhruv Bhandari (XII), Aaditya Raj Verma (XII), Namya Jain (XII), Yash Wadhwa (XII), Avneet Kaur Virdi (XII), Taarush Goswami (XII), Daksh Dhull (XII) and Arsh Arora (XII) visibly looked a lot confident, wise and happy as they shared the spotlight with Dr. Amita Chauhan, Chairperson, Amity International Schools, school principal, Dr. Ameeta Mohan, faculty members and others.
As several schools in India are encouraging its students to participate in this competition for the past decade, the local competition in qualifying round is also stiff and therefore taken seriously by schools, mentors and families. According to the school principal, the selection of the students itself was meticulous. “Once the circular was shared, there was an overwhelming response. Then, we know our students for years, their strengths and weaknesses, so based on our own assessment, we chose the team from across the disciplines,” she added. School provider for logistics and boarding while as parents paid the airfare of these students.
The journey for the Spaceset 2023-24 began last year in the month of September, when two teams from Amity International School, Pushp Vihar New Delhi, submitted proposals for the Qualifying round of the competition. Both the teams secured spot for the INSSDC (Indian Space Settlement Design Competition) and submitted their proposal for a resubmission to secure a position for the ARSSDC (Asian Regional Space Settlement Design Competition) and one of the teams secured a position for the ARSSDC.
The Asian level took place at Amity University, Dubai from 29th April to March 01, 2024, wherein Dhruv Bhandari got the “Dick Edward Leadership award” and the team got a special mention for the “Social Media Interactiveness” for the competition which was the special category of awards. Thereafter, the team resubmitted the proposal for the ISSDC (International Space Settlement Design Competition) and qualified for the final round of International Space Settlement Design Competition, wherein the proposal by team “Vulture Aviation” stood out and won the winning trophy with flying colours.
After winning the National and Asian rounds, the team traveled Kennedy Space Centre NASA, Titusville, Florida, USA, to take part in the International Space Settlement Design Competition, held from 26th July to 29th July 2024 and won. Extending heartiest congratulations to the students, Dr. Amita Chauhan, said, “It is a matter of immense pride and pleasure that our students have performed exceedingly well, at an international competition of such a high stature. We, at Amity, are committed to the holistic development of the students and nurture their skills and talent so that they are ready for all championships, at national as well as international level. Students are future leaders of tomorrow and through this outstanding achievement in the field of science and technology, they have made their parents, teachers and country proud.”
Dr. Ameeta Mohan, Principal, expressing her happiness added, “Our students are prepared to showcase their talent at various platforms and proper guidance and training is provided to every student, and enable them to develop their skill sets. We are extremely proud of our students and wish them good luck for all their future endeavours.”
Recounting the experience at the ISSDC, the students said the deadline and timing were a major challenge as the competition last 41 hours and created pressure situations and creative differences. “But that is what this competition is about and there was so much learning even if we showed it in our presentations and proposals and not actual models,” said one of the students from the winning group.
A total of 60 students worked under the company named “Vulture Aviation” which had six schools from across the globe, including Amity International School, Pushp Vihar New Delhi, Lakshmipat Singhania Academy from Kolkata, The Endless School from China, East Coast School from the USA, a team from Australia and a team from UK. The competition involved a rigour of designing a space settlement on the surface of Moon at the Peary crater on the moon.
As per the design and format of the competition, students are assigned roles defined in an organization chart similar to those used in real companies. To help students accomplish this challenging task, each Company is provided with managers from industry to serve as Company CEO, then participants receive technical and management training to prepare them for the Competition. A Customer organization defines requirements for developing a design for a specific scenario for each event. Accordingly, the departments are divided into Structural Engineering, Operations and Infrastructure Engineering, Human Factors Engineering, Automation Engineering, Business Development, and Basic Requirements and Schedule and Cost. The experience of participating in this competition teaches high school students’ optimism for the future, technical competence, management skills, working in an organization chart, knowledge of space environments and resources, appreciation for relationships between technical products and human use, teamwork, and techniques for preparing effective documentation. It requires that students integrate their knowledge of and utilize skills in space science, physics, math, chemistry, environmental science, biology, computer science, writing, speaking, art, and common sense.
Thanking the school and parents for the opportunity to participate in such an experiential competition, these Amity students of the winning team cited a range of learning experiences that have changed their outlook and understanding of not only space but of society and sciences. No wonder, this cohort comprises of students from astrophysics enthusiasts to commerce and humanities streams besides STEM students. From widening their imagination and understanding of space sciences to human habitation and utilities, data centres, robotics, evacuation, financial planning and marketing, these students have expanded their learning in each of these fields as they were needed to develop basic understanding of this and specialize in their departments.
Seeing their elevated interests, Dr. Amita Chauhan, enthusiastically remarked, “you’ll see a lot of Amity students like these at the forefront of realization the Vikshit Bharat 2047 vision of the Prime Minister.”
