Despite international advancements in space exploration, unanswered questions still linger as members of the scientific community attempt to unravel the intrigue surrounding outer space and the solar system.
Five Saint Louis University students in the Parks College of Engineering are contributing their time and ingenuity to the current space discovery efforts through their participation in the final round of the NASA MarsPort Engineering Design Student Competition 2002.
The SLU team consists of seniors Boiki Gaseitsiwe, Kristine Kimbrell, Ignacio Rodriguez, Patrick Serani and graduate student Silvia Bayon. The team’s faculty advisor is Christopher P. Rahaim. Bayon, Gaseitsiwe, Kimbrell and Serani are studying aerospace engineering, and mechanical engineering is Rodriguez’s area of study.
This competition is designed in a two-fold manner-to challenge upper-level engineering students and to help National Aeronautics and Space Administration engineers perfect their ideas and plans about the possibility of life on Mars. The basic premise of this competition is for a team (a group of students enrolled in an accredited American institution of higher education) to develop an idea of how to sustain life on Mars through a MarsPort Deployable Greenhouse. The team must figure out a way to support six astronauts on the surface of Mars for 20 years, while providing 25 percent of their diet through diet augmentation. The greenhouse would be sent to Mars two years prior to the arrival of the astronauts, so the plan must include how to store and preserve food adequately for two years and how to create a water source.
The MarsPort competition began with approximately 30 university and college teams submitting letters of intent in October and proposals in November, but that number has been whittled down to a total of six teams. The selected teams for the final round were announced on Dec. 14, and they include Cornell University, Olin College of Engineering, University of Central Florida, University of Colorado, University of Florida and SLU.
The six teams have a preliminary report due on March 29 and a videoconference with NASA officials in April. The teams will then attend the NASA MarsPort Design Conference where they will present their ideas. This conference is tentatively set for May 14-15.
The SLU team has dedicated a great deal of time and energy to this competition, which doubles as their senior design project. They work on their idea anywhere from a few hours a week to three days straight. Serani said that the team has received overwhelming support and assistance from many sources throughout the competition, including friends and family, faculty and staff, the ITS consultant at Parks, Jose Quijano, and to individuals across the country who specialize in various fields like power plants or agriculture.
Cash prizes have been awarded to the six teams for making it to the final round, and the team with the winning idea will receive more cash prizes and the honor of having their idea integrated into NASA’s current work toward discovering life on Mars.
“This is an incredible experience. I’ve been interested in space since I was 5 years old . and this opportunity is overwhelming. When we found out [that we made the finals] I was ecstatic,” Serani said. More information about the competition can be found at http://www.tsgc.utexas.edu/
Marsport.
