The International Space Settlement Design Competition (ISSDC) is an initiative of NASA‘s Center for Space Education that took place at the end of July at the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, after several national and regional competitions that happened worldwide over the last 12 months.
Representing Portugal in the finals were Guilherme Abrantes Leal, Rita Baptista Fernandes, Sara Sofia Filipe and Maria João Lopes.
Since it is the future generation of aerospace industry professionals that is at stake, every year the organization launches a design and scenario challenge: this year, in the finals, the challenge to which four teams were subjected involved designing a space installation that would have to accommodate several thousand people in a realistic scenario for the last years of this century.
These young people, aged between 15 and 18, demonstrated enormous creativity, technical and management skills, presentation and teamwork techniques, as well as knowledge of the environment in space.
Maria João Lopes was the winner of the individual Dick Edwards Award.
