Romanian students win NASA space settlement competition

Romanian students from several high-schools across the country recently won first place at the NASA Ames Space Settlement Design Contest 2014. In the grade 11 category, students from Constanta, Brasov and Bucharest got the first prize, with projects called Spacekit, Tetractys, Renaissance II and Selene Expandable Space Orbital Settlement. In the grade 10 category, Romania had two winners, namely a small team from Tudor Vianu High School in Bucharest - first prize for the project called The Honeycomb Space Settlement, and a large team of students fromthe Mircea cel Batran National College in Constanta - with Helios - Celestial Pioneer. A small Romanian team from Mircea cel Batran National College in Constanta also got the first prize at the grade 7 and younger category, with the project SpaceBurg. Other Romanian students from Bucharest, Constanta and Brasov won second and third places at the NASA contest. Find the entire list of winners here. This year, NASA has received 562 entries from 1,567 students from 18 countries. Romanian students were also among winners in last year’s edition of the contest, when NASA received 592 submissions from 1,536 students. A Romanian student from the Mircea cel Batran National College in Constanta won the first prize at the grade 12 category, together with two other teams from Bucharest and Constanta. Romanian students from other different grades also got the first prize at the 2013 contest. The entire list here. This annual contest, co-sponsored by NASA Ames and the National Space Society (NSS) is for all students up to 12th grade (18 years old) from anywhere in the world. Individuals, small teams of two to five, and large teams of six or more are judged separately. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com