Early in March, 269 students, from 24 schools across the country were put into four teams.  The teams acted as companies competing for a lucrative contract with the Foundation Society to build a mining settlement in the Asteroid Belt (set in a fictional world in 2075).

The companies had to propose a design, working together in their large teams, electing a President and Vice-Presidents to be in charge of departments within the Company, under the guidance of a “CEO” mentor, who had been through the competition themselves.

Our students’ Company was called, Olympus Mons Trading Company (OMTC). The students worked all day Saturday, from 10 am in the morning until 8pm, before returning to their accommodation. Some of the students then worked all night, finalising their designs, working right up to the deadline at 8 am Sunday morning.

Once all designs had been submitted, the teams had to present a 30-slide presentation in front of all the other teams, and in front of a panel of eight expert judges from academia and industry, including a compliance judge.

OMTC were first to present, and after responding excellently to questioning by the judges, followed by a long deliberation on all designs, it was announced that our students’ company, OMTC, had won the competition and our fabulous students were National Champions! Congratulations to Romeo, Haoren and Joy, who returned to NLA with their gold medals and certificates.

To really put the icing on the cake, on the 3rd April, it was announced by the competition organisers that Joy had so impressed the judges and CEO of her company, that she has been specially selected by the judges to represent the UK, as one of only 12 students, on the first choice team, for the International Space Design Competition, to be held at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, USA, in July. This is a testament to her hard work, teamwork and personality. We are already so proud of her, and wish her the best of luck in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We hope she comes back to NLA next year to tell us all about it.