Emily Trusler:
4rd Year Mechanical and Space Engineering, University of Queensland;
2003 Finalist.

Four years ago, during grade 10 at All Hallows’ School in Brisbane, I was told by a friend about this space competition that some guys from St Laurence’s were setting up. We gave them a call and the next thing I know we are sitting in a school classroom listening to how we’re going to be designing a space station in an asteroid belt. I sat there thinking “What am I getting myself into…”; the closest I’d gotten to learning anything about space was watching Apollo 13. But, as I soon discovered, there is always things to learn. And so, over those next few months I discovered a passion for space that has ultimately lead me to where I am today: a Mechanical and Aerospace engineering student at the University of Queensland.

And what a rush! We found ourselves clustered around our mentor on mother’s day 2003, anxious grade 11 students, waiting for him to read the results… we had made the finals! We were going to the USA! We had about two months to plan a trip to the states, including a spot of sightseeing at Kennedy Space Centre, the Washington Monument, and Hollywood. But we knew that, in the end we would all end up in Orlando for the last week of our school holidays, ready to take on the world. When we arrived at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral on the first morning I was in awe of everything from the old space shuttles on display to the freeze dried ice cream. Over the next three days we were asked to do what it had taken our team in Brisbane over 6 months to do; it seemed like an impossible task, and it almost was. We were making adjustments right up until we presented our proposal for a habitat on Mars to a panel of NASA professionals. The presentation was bad enough, but the ten minutes Q&A with the judging panel? Overall, what a rush!

The skills I gained though the International Space Settlement Design Competition helped me though many high school assignments and even now, at university, I still find it paying off. The experience not only taught me how to work in a high pressure group situation, which is an invaluable skill to have, but through it also gained lasting friendships and many great memories.

Peter Tep:
1st Year Chemical Engineering, University of QLD;
2005 and 2006 ISSDC Finalist.

I remember , way back in Grade 9, about a group of older boys who went to NASA, for “some sort of space thing”. I thought to myself at the time, what sort of people would sacrifice their entire summer holiday to write a report on space? That year, at the school end of year presentations, I watched a documentary covering their fascinating and far-reaching journey from local “joes” to an overnight international success story. To my surprise, the following year I received an invitation to join the guys that I had looked up to the previous year; was I in!

The two or three months that followed were both fun and enriching, yet agonisingly challenging. What had I gotten in to I thought? Yet, now that I look back, as much as it was about building my knowledge of the harsh environment of space, it was very much a character building experience that tested my abilities and strongly developed some that I didn’t even know existed. Finally, after a few hundred hours of getting through the hard yakka, we sent our proposal off, and eagerly waited for the response: we received an invitation to attend the finals!

If I were to compile a list of the most memorable experiences of my life, I would have to say the ISSDC finals tops it hands down. It was the most fun yet torturous activity I have ever endured, yet the memories and experiences easily outweigh the almost overwhelming effort I put in. I had been posted into the Operations and Infrastructure department, a completely foreign section of the proposal that I had had little exposure to back in Australia, so it was head down, bum up. Yet, my fears of not fitting in were eliminated as the other three American boys I was working with were also “newbies” in the precise business of space station operations. Forty eight hours later after the presentation had finished, the Operations section was unanimously the best section of the proposal. What a turnaround.

Could I have spent my summer holidays differently? Indeed, I could have been soaking it up in the sun-drenched beaches of the Gold Coast, hanging around with my non-space faring mates. But then again, how many people can answer a question with “Last holidays I spent taking on the world at NASA”? Superb.

Chuong Nguyen:
Year 12 student, St Laurence’s College;
2006 Finalist, 2007 ASDC Champion, 2007 ISSDC Finalist.

It was the 2003 end of year presentations when I first saw the footage of the experience of the first Australian entrants into the International Space Station Design Competition. In 2005, my Year 10 English teacher announced to the class that the ISSDC was on again, and, once again, our school was going to enter!

What more could you ask for: a team project that builds teamwork skills; allows you to practice writing massive blocks of text for Senior English essays; and, of course, a chance to wield a little imaginative power over 15,000 imaginary people onboard your space station. I thought, “What the hell. If the Yanks can do this, so can I.” At the first meeting in November of 2005, I found out that there were a few others who probably shared my ideas and thoughts. There were thirteen of us. Their reasons for entering were pretty similar: a shot at making the finals and going to the USA; seeing human space exploration in the flesh, and of course, to beat the Yanks.

The first couple of weeks with the project were simple enough. Brainstorm ideas, analyse the task sheets, collaborate ideas. It wasn’t until about just after Christmas 2005 that we all finally realised that this project wasn’t going to be like any old school assignment, but a 40-page business proposal. Forty pages! All the assignments that the eight Year 10s put together wouldn’t even reach 20 pages. We all thought that we were all in way over our heads. The hardcore writing began and all the measurements were checked, found to be wrong, and rechecked. Soon enough, we were almost done. The promised half hour meetings once a week became two hour long sessions of typing and number crunching, the long hours at night became really boring really quickly. Only the lure of free food kept the group going through these tough times.

The final stages of editing were tedious twelve hour periods with lunch and dinner breaks. Everyone was relieved when the final copy was finished and printed. The only problem was: how’d we do? We posted the copies in March, but it wasn’t until early May that we found out. We were going to the States! All the work, the long, dark, caffeinated hours of editing, typing and eating had finally paid off. We’d made it. Now all that’s left is what we all joined up for: the Finals…Bring It On!

Note: Chuong has since returned to Australia after participating in the 2006 Finals round, where he was instrumental in the final presentation through his role as Vice President of Marketing. And no, whilst he didn’t get to “beat the Yanks”, he privately described his trip as “100 out of 10”.

David Shaw:
4rd Year Mechanical Engineering, University of Queensland;
2003 & 2005 Finalist, 2006 Mentor.

When I was in grade ten a mate of mine found an (until then) little known competition on the Internet called the International Space Station Design Competition (ISSDC). The prize: a trip to the finals round, held at the Kennedy Space Centre, in Orlando, USA. So we roped a teacher into helping us out, and grabbed a few more mates, and got it off the ground. We distributed a flyer of two around some local schools, and before I knew it, we had a team of eight. So we registered, and received our Request For Proposal and all the other information in our Registration Pack. That was September 2002.

By about December of that year we realised just how mind-boggling huge the project was: to design a space station for 10,000 people in the asteroid belt. We met in office buildings, public conference rooms, and at school, to get it all done. That first time I was in Operations and Infrastructure, dealing with the everyday running of the space station, but also dabbled in some Automated facilities and a little Business Development. And so, for the school holidays we worked. And, several sleepless nights and a massive learning curve or two later, we had done it: a forty-page business proposal covering all aspects of the design, construction and running of our space station.

And we waited anxiously for the results: out of 28 entrants, we were a successful finalist! Which meant that, in July of 2003, I was privileged enough to make the trip to the USA, do some sightseeing along the way, and participate in the finals competition. Our team of Aussies were paired with a local team from Orlando, and together we tackled a similar task again, but this time, instead of three months, we did it in one weekend. And instead of producing a business proposal, we delivered a 35 minute presentation before a panel of NASA and aerospace experts!

That was three years ago. Since that time I have graduated from school, survived my first year of university, and am powering headfirst through my second. My choice of mechanical engineering is almost a direct result of the competition all those years ago, a choice I have yet to regret. I owe my employment options at least in part to the competition; NASA on a resume makes employers wake up and take notice! I have had the luck to travel, from Melbourne and Sydney, to New Zealand and back to the USA, since that trip, but none have measured up. The raw experience of that finals weekend is something that I will draw from the rest of my life. I had experience’s there that have assisted me at school (my QCS test), at university (in group work assignments), at home (time management) and of course, at work.

It has led me to running the competition again in 2005-06, this time as an advisor. I assisted a team of twelve from my old school through the preliminary round of the competition, and learnt even more about myself and about the competition, a feat I thought I had long since mastered. I was the proudest mentor in history when I heard they had made the finals, and watched on joy as they took on the world this July at the Johnson Space Centre.

Where to from here? To oversee and co-ordinate the establishment of the Australian Space Design Competition, to see this official semi-finals round of the ISSDC provide Australian school kids with the same opportunities and experience’s that I was lucky to have, to be able to take on the world in the cutting edge industry of Aerospace Engineering.