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Jonas Dino
April 28, 2003
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Phone: 650/604-5612 or 650/604-9000
E-mail: jonas.dino{at}nasa.gov

RELEASE: 03-31AR

NASA CONTEST EXPLORES DESIGNS FOR FUTURE COLONIES IN SPACE

According to students from around the world, the prospects are bright
for people someday living in space.

The annual Space Settlement Contest, sponsored by the Fundamental
Space Biology Program at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field,
Calif., builds upon students' natural fascination with space and
space exploration. The contest challenges students in grades six
through 12 to investigate and then develop designs for a permanent,
orbital space colony. The founders of the contest envision that these
students will one day make orbital colonies a reality.

"The Space Settlement Contest is a part of NASA's educational effort
to inspire the next generation of explorers," said Al Globus, NASA
scientist and one of the founding members of the competition. "The
contest is designed to spark a student's interest in math and science
and to develop the ideas and skills that will make orbital colonies a
possibility. It is all about training the people who will one day
colonize the solar system."

Recently announced, the 2003 grand prize winners were two middle
school students from Iasi, Romania. Horia Mihail Teodorescu and
Lucian Gabriel Bahrin submitted the design for an orbital colony
called Teba 1. The design was chosen as the winner by a panel of NASA
scientists from a field of 89 designs submitted by 307 students from
the United States, Austria, India, Japan and Romania. Entries were
judged on how well the students addressed the fundamental issues
involved with building and maintaining an orbital colony, such as
gravity generation, life support, food production and resource
management. Teba 1 best addressed these issues and has earned a
permanent place on the NASA advanced supercomputing Web site along
with grand prizes winners from the past 10 years.

For the contest, the Fundamental Space Biology Program created a Web
site that provided students access to a wealth of electronic
resources to help develop their designs. The Web site contains
presentations, articles, images, Web links and research on colonizing
space from NASA and other space settlement experts.

"Students and teachers use this site as a resource in preparing
designs that later will be submitted for evaluation by NASA
scientists. The site includes a comprehensive eight-week course on
preparing an orbital settlement design, complete with objectives
aligned with the U.S. National Science Standards, as well as an
online quiz," said Bryan Yager, coordinator of the Space Settlement
Contest.

The grand prize winners, along with the first-, second- and
third-place winners in the individual and small group categories,
will be invited to visit NASA Ames in June. The students will present
their designs, talk to NASA scientists and tour the fundamental space
biology laboratories. All students participating in the contest
received an official Space Settlement Contest certificate.

The Fundamental Space Biology Program, funded by NASA's Office of
Biological and Physical Research, investigates fundamental biological
processes through space flight and ground-based research. The program
brings together state-of-the-art science and technology and seeks to
answer the most basic questions regarding the evolution, development
and function of living systems.

To view the winning submissions and for more information about the
Space Settlement Contest, visit:
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/NAS/SpaceSettlement/

For information about the Fundamental Space Biology Program, visit:

http://fundamentalbiology.arc.nasa.gov/

For information about NASA's Office of Biological and Physical
Research visit:

http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/

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