KAILUA-KONA — What started as a scrimmage between competing classes recently ended up netting a team of local students a first prize win on the international stage. ADVERTISING KAILUA-KONA — What started as a scrimmage between competing classes recently ended
KAILUA-KONA — What started as a scrimmage between competing classes recently ended up netting a team of local students a first prize win on the international stage.
The team, made up of sophomores and seniors at Makua Lani Christian Academy’s high school campus, took first in the 12th grade large team category at the annual NASA Ames Space Settlement contest.
“The sky was not even the limit,” said principal Thaddea Pitts of the students’ effort and achievement. “It was bigger than that.”
Hosted by NASA’s Ames Research Center as well as San Jose State University and the National Space Society, the contest challenges students through 12th grade to design permanent settlements in space.
This year, the contest considered 1,500 submissions from about 6,000 students. Submissions included students from across the world, including schools in India, Romania and the United States.
But before they set their sights on the international level, the project started out as a contest between advanced language classes at the school.
The two teams duked it out in a contest at the W.M. Keck Observatory in Waimea and, about a week after the team won that contest, facilitating teacher Frederick Herrmann asked them if they wanted to keep going, telling them about the annual Ames contest.
From the very beginning, the team focused on playing to the strengths of its individual members.
Team leader Enjolique Hughes said they looked to previous winners and noted that those that came out on top regularly excelled at math and engineering.
“And we knew there was no way we were going to win like that,” she said. “We decided we were going to go and were going to try to be kind of creative. We were going to try and create concepts that were unique and original.”
The final conception, said Noa Baggs, was a “mainland toris,” shaped like a large bicycle tire that houses the majority of life living in the settlement, and a ship designed for transportation and the harvesting of asteroids and ice.
The project was conceived to be based off Saturn’s rings with minimal reliance on back-and-forth travel between the settlement and Earth.
That focus on self-reliance and sustainability forced the group to find creative solutions for every detail of life in space.
The team considered everything from population and clothing to sourcing light bulbs and baking soda.
“If you can put a creative aspect onto it, that’ll set you apart,” said Matthew Rosato.
Oftentimes, one detail would bring about its own new challenges, reinforcing the need for the team to work together and ensure a cohesive vision for the settlement.
“It was a sort of domino effect of not issues but challenges,” said Rosato.
Research and work on the project extended far beyond math and engineering, also incorporating concepts of economics, psychology, graphic design and food production.
The team even enlisted the aid of a seamstress to help build a cold-temperature suit for an environment like Saturn’s moon Titan, where temperatures sit at a frosty 290 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit.
The team built the suit incorporating a material called aerogel and put it to the test at the top of Mauna Kea. A video of that test posted online showed that while temperatures outside the suit sat at about 40 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature inside the suit was above 86 degrees Fahrenheit.
“So I am very warm,” said team member Kelly Chung, who was wearing the suit in the video.
Their efforts taught them more than just how to design and maintain a full space settlement; it also gave them tools to succeed down here on Earth.
“I think how — and it sounds super cliché — but I think how to work together,” said Hughes. “Because we could all get super frustrated with each other.”
Hughes said everyone on the team is a leader with strong personalities, so bringing it together as one cohesive team could be a challenge.
That sense of teamwork, added student Witney O’Halloran, also extended to listening to each other’s ideas and contributions.
Reisa Waddell, meanwhile, said she was initially hesitant about the project. In the end though, the experience taught her a lot about taking risks.
“Because the outcome was so exciting. We were screaming and jumping around because we were so happy when we heard the results,” she said. “But just the fact that, taking some risks, taking some time to learn something completely out of our comfort zone — I think that’s what I learned, personally, and, I’m sure to some degree, we all learned that.”
The Makua Lani students said they’re hoping to get to the International Space Development Conference in St. Louis at the end of May, where they’ll have a chance to meet leading thinkers in space development.
The team is currently raising money to go toward attendance at the conference and is soliciting donations.
Hughes said people interested in donating can contact her at enjoliquehughes@gmail.com.
