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Project of team of Romanian students, in second place at NASA Space Settlement competition in U.S.
The project of a space station, proposed by a team of Romanian students, won second place at the NASA Space Settlement competition in the USA, according to a statement from their sponsors sent to AGERPRES on Monday.
The "Zgriptor" project was proposed by a team of eight students from the International College of Informatics in Bucharest and the "Victor Babes" National College. The students were supported by a sponsorship of 13,000 euros. Over 4,500 projects from 19 countries were entered in the competition.
Some of the students are also members of the Romspace team, which recently launched the first Romanian satellite into space.
"Zgriptor" represents a space station in its entirety, from the basic structures to the calculations for placing it in orbit, the needs of the inhabitants, the recycling systems of the used resources, the recycling of waste, the economic and governance model.
The ultimate goal of the project is to use available resources to create an autonomous settlement in an Aldrin-Cycler orbit between Earth and Mars. The students managed to design a space station that has the capacity to host 10,000 people for a long period of time.
The project aims to stimulate innovation in the fields of space and aerospace engineering.
The NASA Space Settlement Contest is an annual competition for students in grades VI-XII, sponsored by NASA's Ames Research Center and the National Space Society. The competition is open to students between the ages of 11 and 18 from any country in the world.
