Are we ready to believe that there will be space settlements by the year 2034? At least students of Budha Dal Public school believe so.
The effort began in the US 20 years back. Eight years later American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics stepped in to organise a competition. Last years students of Budha Dal Public School participated in the International Settlement Design Competition at the Kennedy Space Centre Florida and won the first prize.
This year, after the semi-final event held in American centre, New Delhi, from December 21-23, the school has qualified for the finals in July 2005. At the competition the students between 14-18 years of age were given a project, the parameters and were asked to design a settlement in space for 10,000 people.
The settlement would be operated by robots. Saurabh, a member of the winning team, says that they had to design various robots for construction work, for maintenance and safety etc. “Each person would want the works to be done by automation through robots.” All the robots were networked to space centres which act as the controlling centre.
Robots called ‘‘Helpboats’’ can control fire, they can also be used for household work, were equipped with a camera on the head and numeric key pad in the middle region. If the robot detects any fire, the camera will record it and with the help of the numeric key pad the signals will be sent to the control centre. Saurabh Anand, co-director Automatic said, ‘‘The most important thing was the stability of the settlement. We had to design a settlement where all the forces cancelled out so that there is stability in the settlement.’’
The settlement will have a zero gravity environment and will be provided with commercial centre, residential areas, power plant and water treatment facility.
Navninder Singh Saini, operation director, said power will be provided by solar power satellite. Three models of transport system Personal Rapid Transport system (PRT), Group Rapid Transport system (GRT) and Magnetic Leviated Train running on special tracts (MAGLEBS) have been proposed. There would be space suit for protection from radiation. Then there would be a microgravity region in the central region of the taurus shaped model, which will provide recreational facilities to people flying in space.
Amteshwar, director, human factor department, says they have to convince people that the settlement would be a home away from home.