Asian Regional Space Settlement Design Competition

12 students from grades 9 - 12 visited Dubai for the Asian Regional Space Settlement Design Competition from 29th March - 2nd April 2024 and stood Runners-up. They competed alongside teams from India, Pakistan, China and Iran to design a Space Settlement that could capture and relocate asteroids in Earth-crossing orbits. The students interacted with Aeronautical Engineers, Architects, Journalists and other industry experts who were mentors and judges for the competition. The students reached this Asian round after qualifying at the Indian National Space Settlement Design competition in January this year. 

Names of Students:

1. Rayirth Kundu (IBPD 1)

2. Arnav Balyan (Grade 12)

3. Harjas Singh (Grade 12)

4. Mudit Roy (Grade 12)

5. Samrat Aneja (Grade 10)

6. Aarrush Chaturvedi (Grade 10)

7. Shaunak Uppal (Grade 10)

8. Rishabh Sharma (Grade 10)

9. Utsav Chawla (Grade 10)

10. Abeer Bhandari (Grade 9)

11. Shiven Raj Kandoi (Grade 9)

12. Aarav Balyan (Grade 9)

Reflection from Rayrith Kundu (IBDP 1)

SSDC is a competition where students are put in the shoes of aerospace industry professionals, designing a proposal in just under 24 hours. ARSSDC was truly an out of this world experience. The competition has reinforced my passion for engineering, providing me with real time exposure to problem solving, decision making and communication. I found being put in a race against time extremely thrilling. By far the most valuable takeaway from the competition for me would be on how to communicate and deal with challenges. Running into challenges is extremely common, whether it is realising you’ve made a mistake in the design, or a personal conflict with someone, instead of dwelling on it, it is better to own up or talk it out, since all that does is reduce the quality of your final work. All in all, I truly loved taking part in the competition, working on the proposal and meeting new people.