
Meet Maria João Lopes and Rita Fernandes, two talented young women who won the Grand Prize at the International Space Settlement Design Competition.
During the interview, they share their experiences at the Final International Space Settlement Design Competition, including the biggest challenges they faced, the lessons learned and the thrill of taking part in this prestigious competition, which involves young people from all over the world in the development of designs for space colonies.
How did you find out about the Final International Space Settlement Design Competition?
Maria Lopes: I learned about the competition in 10th grade through the S.P.A.C.E. Science Club at Sebastião e Silva Secondary School. The teacher, Ms. Cristina Pinho, spoke about the competition in the club. Although I wasn’t a member of S.P.A.C.E. at the time, a colleague of mine who was remembered that I might like it and introduced me to the idea. At the time I didn’t think I’d sign up, as I didn’t have enough knowledge or experience to take part.
I signed up almost on impulse, when I realized that the competition wasn’t about the knowledge I already had, but about the knowledge I would acquire and the people I would meet.
Since my initial participation, I’ve been spreading the word, calling friends and colleagues to enter this event too, which has shaped my growth as a person and a scientist.
Rita Fernandes: I heard about this competition through my school’s science club. The student coordinator, Maria João, who ended up coming with me to the United States, had already participated in previous years and she explained to me what the competition consisted of.
When I realized that the theme involved space, I was immediately excited. We ended up participating as a group, along with the science club from Sebastião e Silva Secondary School. It was a very stressful day, but a lot of fun.
What can you tell us about this experience?
Maria Lopes: This experience, not just the final, but the whole way there, has shaped the way I look at the space exploration industry and has given me enormous curiosity about what is to come in the next few years and decades. I have to admit that I’m keen to join more projects of this kind in the future, and who knows, maybe one day I’ll move from the theoretical and hypothetical to the practical side of things.
Through the competition I made friends from other countries that I wouldn’t have met otherwise. We all had similar interests and hobbies, laughed at the same jokes and shared a great passion for physics, which ended up bringing us together. The friendship and sense of togetherness I gained with these people is almost inexplicable – we even got together online to watch “Interstellar” after a competition.
There are three stages: the Portuguese stage, the European stage and the international final. At each stage there are around three teams, each structured as if it were a company, which in turn is divided into departments.
Rita Fernandes: The competition is divided into three stages. In the first one, the national competition – Portugal Space Design Competition – I participated with my school’s science club, going up against several teams from across the country for a day in an online event.
In the second phase of the competition – the European Space Design Competition – only three girls made it through from my original team and everything was more challenging than in the first phase. It was also online and lasted an entire weekend, where we joined teams with people from several different countries and worked non-stop for almost 48 hours. My team ended up winning the European competition and that’s what got me to the final stage, the international stage, in the United States.
The International Space Settlement Design Competition took place at the Kennedy Space Center (NASA), in Florida, for about four days and it was very challenging but very enriching. We competed as part of the European team, which consisted of a large team with delegations from other countries.
The structure of the competition is fairly identical in every stage. Our job is to design a space base on another planet or in the middle of space, which is quite a challenge! At the start, we are given a briefing on what we have to do, a document with a series of requirements, divided into five areas: structures, operations, automation, humans and marketing. Each participant chooses an area they want to work in, and… let’s get to work!
I was always in structures and I learned a lot, both from the challenges I was given in the competitions and from the people I worked with. I made friends in each stage whom I still talk to regularly, not only Portuguese but people from all over the world, and I have this competition to thank for these incredible friendships. In the end, our team won!
What advice can you give to other young people who want to take part in this type of international competition?
Maria Lopes: The most important piece of advice I could give is not to be afraid. Don’t be afraid to go alone, because you’ll meet a lot of people with whom you’ll make friends; don’t be afraid of not knowing things (or thinking you don’t know them), because you’ll come out of this competition with new incredible knowledge; and finally, and most importantly, don’t be afraid to take risks! Take a chance, I promise you it’s worth it.
Rita Fernandes: The best advice I could offer is not to be afraid of competing or of taking risks. I’ll be honest, when I entered the national competition I never thought I’d make it till the end of the competition. So, if you think a competition or other project is interesting, just join it, you never know where you might end up!
Do you think studying in the municipality of Oeiras helped you win the Grand Prize in the competition?
Maria Lopes: Studying in the Municipality of Oeiras is exactly what made my participation possible. A lot of other students, outside the municipality, didn’t know about the competition, which I learned about from my teacher, Ms. Cristina Pinho. I’m very grateful to the municipality for helping us go to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. About two years earlier, in 2021, the municipality also offered to pay the expenses for that year’s international final, but unfortunately my colleague, Mário Vilas, and I were unable to go due to COVID-19.
The Oeiras City Council is very supportive of the S.P.A.C.E. Science Club, to which I belonged during my high school years. All the activities and experiences we had helped us win this Grand Prize and the individual award for excellence in leadership – “Dick Edward’s” – so I feel that the municipality’s help was pivotal to the events that followed.
Rita Fernandes: Studying in Oeiras, especially at my school – Sebastião e Silva Secondary School – has allowed me to take part in competitions and projects that I would hardly have had access to at other schools. Therefore, I can say with conviction that studying in Oeiras helped me to win the Grand Prize in this competition.
Would you like to pursue a career related to the science and innovation happening here in the municipality?
Maria Lopes: I’ve always wanted to pursue a life in science and research, there was never a time when I thought I wanted to do anything else. At the moment, I’m studying Physics at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, and I intend to continue my studies in order to secure a strong solid career in the field of theoretical physics and cosmology.
However, I feel like if I were given the opportunity to work in space exploration, it would be very difficult, or rather almost impossible, to turn it down.
Rita Fernandes: The career I would ideally choose for myself is connected to science and engineering – I would like to be an aerospace engineer. It’s been my biggest dream and it’s what interests me most in competitions like this, that they have space as their object of study.
I know it’s a difficult challenge, but as you may have gathered from this interview, I’m a girl who likes challenges and who likes to push herself, so I’m doing everything I can to get onto the most difficult course in the country.