Six DPS STS School students win NASA Space Settlement Contest

‘Project Clementia’ prepared by six students from Grade 8 of DPS STS School Dhaka won the first prize in the NASA Space Settlement Contest 2023.

The creators of Project Clementia are Mohammad Mohaimin Uddin Naib, Md Farzan Ali, Aayaat Gulfaam Mahmud, KA Adiyan Sadeque, Parikshit Singh and Abrar Ehsan.

The winners were announced at the end of March. The NASA Ames Research Center and the National Space Society (NSS) sponsored the competition, according to a press release on Tuesday.

A total of 26,725 students from 19 countries participated in the 2023 contest. Students from Grades 7-12 were allowed to participate from across the world, and the submission process started in December and continued till February.

This year, two groups of students participated in the contest – seven from Grade 7 (Project Elysium) and six from Grade 8 (Project Clementia). The students submitted their projects online on the AwardForce Platform of NSS.

Following Professor O’Neill’s original thought experiment, NASA Space Settlement Contest is held annually since 1994. No fixed requirements are given to students other than the project must focus on a free space settlement concept.

Settlements must be permanent homes and cannot be temporary work camps. Settlements may not be on a planet or moon, but support activities like mining may be allowed in it. Submission may concentrate on one or a few aspects of space settlements and supporting systems, including mines, activities leading up to settlement, economic and social issues, and many more.

On this occasion, DPS STS Dhaka School Principal Dr Shivananda said, “When I first introduced the space settlement contest, the students were a little hesitant to participate as no precedents were available to them. However, all the participating students demonstrated outstanding teamwork and dedication while working.”

“Furthermore, the in-charge teachers worked alongside the student teams and performed brilliantly throughout the project preparation. We are proud of the incredible achievement that our students from Project Clementia have achieved and hope that they may continue to achieve incredible feats in the field of Astronomy.”

The programme coordinator for the project submission was Ranjith S, Shahed Bulbul Papon, Amena Dewan, Bishwanath Bhattacharya, Hans Ankur Byapari, and Ashish Chatterjee.