This year Corinda had five talented students involved in January's annual Australian Space Design Competition (ASDC).
Jarvis, Li Wei, James, Jaymi and Ruth collaborated with peers from Wesley College, Glen Waverly and All Hallow’s School as part of the Orion Corporation, where they completed a Request For Tender for the Atlas Space Settlement project. The team voted for Year 12 student Ruth to be co-CEO due to her ongoing involvement in the competition, and there was no doubt she brought a wealth of experience to the team. Fellow Year 12 student Jaymi was also selected to be one of two General Engineering Managers due to his past experience.
The two-day competition required students to give up their time over the holidays to be involved. They were required to create a realistic design to capture three different types of asteroids and deliver them to an Earth orbit for mining by another company. This involved creating the structure of the space ship, landing systems, interior, power distribution, environmental systems, food systems, water systems, air systems, space suits, robots, living areas and transportation systems. They also created a schedule, consider budget and perform a risk analysis.
On the first day, students worked in teams to come up with designs ideas before the initial review and feedback, which meant making changes late into the night. The following morning they worked hard before a secondary review, which culminated in a final presentation to demonstrate the key parts of their designs. Students had 25 minutes in the evening to present.
Orion received some excellent feedback and they were the best in a number of areas but ultimately Centaurus had the winning presentation overall - congratulations to all involved! Thank you also to Corinda staff members Richard Jack, Nathaniel Brown and Kelly Allgood for supporting the students at the UQ-based finals.