The NASA Space Settlement Contest, organized by NASA and the National Space Society (NSS), featured the participation of three students from Andrei Șaguna National College: Alexandra Miron, Diana Bonciu, and Maria Bata.
Their project, SPARKLE, is a space station designed to provide the resources needed to sustain 15,000 people, located near one of Saturn’s moons. The ideal location is ENCELADUS, Saturn’s sixth-largest moon, as its south pole hosts a subsurface ocean beneath a thick ice crust, as well as geysers whose energy can be harnessed.
In their project, the students detailed the structure of the spacecraft, materials capable of withstanding cosmic shocks and radiation, and dedicated areas for recycling and storage. Each of the spacecraft’s three modules functions as a small city, complete with streets, igloo-shaped homes, and extensive vertical green spaces to maximize space efficiency.
The project includes detailed descriptions of the spacecraft’s engines, resources, energy, water systems, agriculture, education, justice, and even an amusement park—creating a vision of how life might be imagined in space.
