Competition that challenges students to imagine
a space base is back
The winning team of the Portugal Space Design Competition (PT-SDC) will participate in the European eliminatory round, followed by the world final, in the United States. The national eliminatory round takes place on March 4.
The Portugal Space Design Competition (PT-SDC), a competition in which participants are invited to imagine a space base, is back. Applications for the 2023 edition of the initiative, organised at national level by the Portuguese Space Agency and Ciência Viva, are now open. The application period closes on 2 March.
The national competition takes place on March 4, online, and is one of the qualifying stages of the European Space Design Competition (EU-SDC), which should take place at the end of March. During the EU-SDC the European participants will be selected for the world finals, which will take place at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (Florida) in the United States of America.
The PT-SDC is aimed at young people between the ages of 15 and 18, who can register individually or in teams of four to 12 members. Each team functions as a company and each participant has distinct positions and responsibilities. The objective is to present a project proposal for the construction and installation of a space base in the not-too-distant future. This process seeks to simulate what is already done in the space industry worldwide, preparing these young people for their professional and academic future. The competition also aims to encourage all secondary school students to apply their knowledge of Engineering, Science, Mathematics, Management or Design.
“Taking part in this competition was a fantastic and formative experience, which showed me the possibilities of the space industry,” says Marta Vasconcelos, who, last year, was part of the Portuguese team that won the national eliminatory round and the European team that competed in the world final. “In the final, you could feel a highly competitive and, at the same time, collaborative atmosphere. Learning from brilliant minds in the industry gave me a new perspective on key skills in the sector and completely changed the way I saw the professional opportunities in this field, so much so that it influenced my choice of university course,” she added.
For Marta Gonçalves, manager of educational projects at the Portuguese Space Agency, “this is a unique opportunity that young people cannot miss”. “At national level they can exchange impressions with other students and, if they make it to the European and world trials, the possibilities for learning and growth are immense,” she stresses.
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