UK Space Design Competition 2022
On Saturday 19th November Headington’s UK Space Design Competition team headed off to Brooks University for the regional heat. Paired with another school from Coventry and given the task of designing a space settlement in Mercury’s orbit, an entire day was spent engineering and presenting the design project.
Jenny Lyons, Director of Education and Outreach SSEF, said: “Headington Girls’ certainly made their presence known in the UK Space Design Competition!
“It is hard to believe that you were competition novices, as you came in with total confidence and took charge of Kepler, your company. I am guessing by your enthusiasm that you will be gracing us with your presence at one of our digital competitions – please do; your energy and confidence will certainly make the competition all the better for your presence.”
Reflections on the day:
Olivia said: “I enjoyed meeting the rest of the team as everyone was very friendly. It was also nice to have to present our ideas to real scientists as they helped show us how to improve. The day ended with some delicious pizza and we were sad to have to go home as it had been such a fun experience.”
Tanya said: “I found that this was a very interesting and original task to work on, which made us engage all our creativity, engineering and physics skills and knowledge. It was very fun to try applying myself in a new context, while working with our team members as they were very knowledgeable and full of ideas as well. I would definitely go again for a win!”
Tinu said: “I believe the event really enhanced our ability to work as a team but also to work autonomously. I myself, not being very STEM-orientated, still found this to be a really useful skill and value this exposure which I look forward to using in the future.”
Alicia said: “It was an excellent opportunity to be exposed to professional programmes like CAD and detailed research on operations and infrastructure on spacecraft. Overall It was an amazing experience with lots of new knowledge gained.”
Kiki said: “This was quite a challenge for me because this is something very different from individual school work with everyone cooperating together like how it works in firms. Hope I can attend more events like this in the future!”
And Elysia said: “I had a great time participating in the UKSD challenge. I had a lot of fun meeting new people but also working together to create something as a team. It was also interesting to see the different components that need to be considered when creating a structure to go around Mercury. I will certainly be doing more competitions like this again!”
