NASA Space Settlement Contest 

 
● Early 2020 submission 
 
** Submissions must relate to free space settlements. Settlements 
may not be on a planet or moon, although support activities such as 
mining may be. 
** Settlements must be​ permanent homes,​ not temporary work 
camps. 
** Submissions may focus on one or a few aspects of space 
settlement and supporting systems, including ​mines, activities 
leading up to settlement, economic and social issues, etc. 
** Designs, original research, ​essays​, ​stories​, models, artwork or 
any other orbital space settlement related materials may be 
submitted. 
** Submissions should not be longer than ​50 pages​ unless it is 
essential to explain the work. 
** The project must consist of 1-10 pdf or jpg files (usually just 
one). Each may be no larger than 24 MB. 
** Submissions will be made electronically. 
** The submission must be the student’s own work. Plagiarism is 
forbidden. No part of an entry may copied with one exception: You 
 may quote short passages, but only if the material is surrounded in 
double quotes (“) and the source indicated. 
** For example: “This material copied from somewhere,” My 
Favorite Space Book. 
** Quoted materials should rarely be more than a few lines, and 
never longer than a few paragraphs. Quoting long passages is 
forbidden. 
** Entries caught plagiarizing, even one part of a large entry, will be 
disqualified and disposed of. 
** Instructors, mentors or parents may assist the student by 
presenting relevant resources, discussing core concepts and 
suggesting minor edits, but the work itself must be entirely student 
produced. 
 
 
⭐​NASA’s official space settlement page (guide)​⭐ 
 
Topics to work on: 
 
RELATED TO SETTLEMENT PART-I 
1. Resource gathering 
2. Energy and power 
3. Downwards pull 
4. Structure and design 
5. Engine and drive 
6. Energy generation and collection 
7. Employment 
 8. Agriculture 
9. Business and economy 
10. Governance 
11. Water and Air 
12. Weather control 
13. Green areas and botany (air purifiers) 
14. Fuel and oxygen 
15. Water networks 
16. Air networks 
17. Electrical networks 
18. Fuel networks 
19. Demographics 
20. Communication 
 
CONSTRUCTION OF SETTLEMENT 
1. Resource collection 
2. Estimated timeline 
3. Approximate expenditure 
4. Technology 
5. Human power 
6. International cooperation 
7. Materials to be constructed 
 
LAUNCH OF SETTLEMENT INTO SPACE 
1. Requirements 
2. Where and when 
3. Supporting force during launch Total topics: 
28+1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Why is this impossible? 
 
EXHIBIT A: Resource ​gathering is an inevitable difficulty in any 
construction. In the case of a space settlement the gathering of required 
resources to construct the hull is simply impossible with current
technology and current access to resources. 
 
To mathematically prove how this is impossible we must take a look at 
different cases of shapes in which the hull can be designed. 
 
1] Torus: To start off, let us examine the possibility of gathering 
resources for one of the most common types of shapes chosen for a space 
settlement. 
 
It is a common mathematical fact that the volume of a hollow torus is: