Space is More in Gemini Mars Competition Final

The group Space is More of Wrocław University of Science and Technology is one of ten teams that have qualified for the final of a competition organised by Mars Society and NASA. The participants' task was to design a two-man mission which could head for Mars before the year 2024.

The competition was announced in March this year. Those interested had a few months to develop their projects and send them to Mars Society. 19 teams entered the competition, hailing from countries including Italy, Russia, the USA, the UK, Australia, Japan and Argentina. Ultimately, 12 of these submitted their projects, including the team Space is More - comprising MSc students and a PhD student of Wrocław University of Science and Technology along with two students of the University of Pennsylvania. The finalists will meet on September 22 in Washington at the 19th Annual International Mars Society Convention. They will present their projects in detail two days later before six Mars Society and NASA jurymen. The criteria to be taken into account are mission cost projection, technical quality and design, complexity, and schedule. The winning team will be awarded a prize of 10 thousand dollars, while USD 5, 3 and 2 thousand can be won by the runners-up. The students' concept involves launching two combined rockets (the first would detach from the spacecraft already in the first minutes of the mission). The two strong crew on its board would use a number of facilitations designed to make their 18 months' stay in space as comfortable as possible. One of these would be a special "centrifuge", providing conditions of partial gravity during the astronauts' sleep. - It's important for a mission this long, as human bones, which for a year and a half don't have to bear the muscles' weight, suffer decalcification thus becoming prone to fracture. - explains Szymon.