Space colony contest held at Ames On June 15, over 140 space colonists descended on Ames. These invaders were many of the student winners of the 1998 Ames Space Settlement Contest along with their families and teachers. The magazine Final Frontier co-sponsored the contest. Tour participants saw the historical aircraft in Hangar One, the vertical motion simulator, a space station mockup, the Lunar Prospector control center, Aerospace Encounters, the twenty foot centrifuge, the twelve foot wind tunnel, the Mars Map project, and the NAS visualization laboratory and computer room. The rest came from around the U.S., including the grand prize winners from Connecticut, a group from Arizona, several groups from the Bay Area, and a large contingent from Chico.
Students develop space settlement designs and related materials.
These are sent to Ames for judgement. Several teachers use this contest as part of their curriculum. Space colonies are permanent communities in orbit, as opposed to living on the Moon or other planets. The work of Princeton physicist Dr. O'Neill and others have shown that such colonies are technically feasible, although expensive. Settlers of this high frontier are expected to live inside large air-tight rotating structures holding hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people along with the animals, plants, and single celled organisms vital to comfort and survival.