Asian Regional Space Settlement Design Competition Welcome!

Welcome to the Eighth Asian Regional Space Settlement Design Competition! This contest puts high school students in the shoes of aerospace industry engineers designing a city in space that will be a home for over 10,000 people. Student engineers demonstrate

creativity technical competence management skills space environment knowledge teamwork and presentation techniques
to conquer the problems inherent in siting and designing a Space Settlement (aka Space Colony). Each year the Competition organizers develop a new design concept with its own special requirements. Contest teams work together to create a 40-page report (see samples from index) that addresses the issues and communicates their ideas and designs. This year, the student teams will be expected to design a city in an orbit around Mercury. There has been major changes in the usual schedule of the qualifying and semifinalist rounds of the competition.

The International Competition & Asian Semifinals

For over 15 years the International Space Settlement Design Competition has been teaching industrial skills to high school students the world over. ARSSDC serves as the Asian Semifinals for the competition and every year 2 teams from Asia are selected to compete with 10 other teams from the world over at the Johnson Space Center, Houston in July 2012.

Competition Format
The competition takes place in three (3) rounds - the qualifying round, the regional semifinals and the International finals. In the qualifying round, you register your team and receive the RFP from the Foundation Society. Your team represents Northdonning Heedwell, a major aerospace company, and your customer is an organization called the Foundation Society. Create and submit your design for an orbiting space settlement, in hopes that your company will be awarded the lucrative contract to construct it. The Preliminary Request for Proposal (RFP) , summarizes the requirements for the Space Settlement desired by the customer. When your team registers for the Competition, you will receive the Final RFP, which describes everything the customer wants in your design. In the semifinals, your team is clubbed with other teams from Asia and you work together for 23 hours to make a 50 slide presentation to a panel of Judges in 35 minutes. In the finals at Johnson Space Center, your team is clubbed with other teams from across the world to work for 43 hours and make another presentation and present to the Judges.

Entering the Competition

Over the last 7 years of its existense as the Asian Semifinals, we have realised that new teams have a perception that experienced teams have advantage. We would not deny that, but we try very hard each year to come up with a completely different scenario and different set of history for the future. This section has been created with the sole purpose of guiding new and old teams alike to understand the competition better. The basic steps involved while participating are as under: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Form a team of 12 students and 2 teachers and/or advisors (Advisors are adults responsible for helping the team participate and travel) Prepare a draft of Rs. 6000 (for Indian teams) or a credit card for paying USD 150 as the registration fees. Register your team online. Once you receive the RFP, prepare your 40 page proposal. Submit proposal before the mentioned date. Wait for the Results of the qualifying round.

Current Scenario
Current Scenario: Aynah, 2077 After fusion propulsion technology enabled relatively rapid and cost-effective interplanetary transportation, the Foundation Society embarked on more aggressive investigations of possible commercial opportunities throughout the solar system. An inexpensive "experiment of curiosity" by a geologist and an engineer -- leaving samples of various alloys on the surface for an entire 175 Earthday-long day of Mercury -- led to the discovery that long exposure to solar heat and radiation, followed by a long "cold soak", changes material properties in unexpected ways. Further experimentation led to the development of a true miracle metal; lightweight, strong, amenable to producing complex shapes, self-lubricating, and providing protection from heat, cold, and radiation. Aynah will serve as the base for manufacturing and curing Reardonium and for acting as a Port of Entry for Mercury.

What is an RFP?
When an organization or government wishes to create a big new thing or perform a big new project, they don't do it themselves: they hire someone. How do they know who to hire? They issue a "Request for Proposal" which is precisely what it sounds like: a plea for companies to propose a solution to their problem. Real companies (often called "government contractors") research the problem, design solutions, and then create a document that is their proposal for creating or building the "big new thing". The government (or whoever) then chooses one of the proposals and grants that organization a "contract" to implement their solution. These contracts often run into billions of dollars. The Space Settlement Design Competition is all about creating one of these proposals: a response to a request to build a space settlement. The RFP has 7 sections, namely 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Executive Summary Structural Design Operations and Infrastructure Human Factors Automation and Robotics Schedule and Costs and Business Development

Each of these sections have 4-5 sub-sections, each subsection having minimum requirements. For teams to design and develop a good proposal they should pay special attention to addressing all the minimum requirements mentioned in the RFP, and then capitalise on remaining space in the prescribed maximum pages to state more points asked by the RFP. Look at the Preliminary RFP to understand the Format and Schedule of the submissions. Your team needs to register before getting the Qualifying Round RFP.

Preliminary Request for Proposal (RFP)

Date: January 1, 2077 Re: "Aynah" Space Settlement Contract Introduction This is a request by the Foundation Society for contractors to propose the design, development, construction, and operations planning of the first large space settlement community in orbit around planet Mercury. For planning purposes, the Foundation Society has selected "Aynah" as this community's name. Proposals may suggest alternate names for this community, within the Foundation Society's established naming convention that requires the name to begin with the letter "A" and end with the suffix "ah". Format and Schedule

Only entries from registered teams are eligible to advance in the Competition.
Submit proposals in the English language, single-sided on paper, with a 40-page limit. Submit paper and, for archive purposes, a PDF of your work. Copies of each proposal must be received no later than August 10, 2011. This is a preliminary Request for Proposal (RFP). Your proposal is expected to include all of the items identified in the Statement of Work. Proposals must meet more detailed requirements described in the Final RFP, which will be sent to each team that submits a completed Registration Form. You must register to receive the complete and final RFP. Statement of Work 1. 2. Basic Requirements -- The contractor will describe the design, development, and construction of the Aynah space settlement in orbit around Mercury. Structural Design -- Aynah must provide a safe and pleasant living and working environment for 14,000 long-term residents, and up to 200 short-term visitors. Specify allocation of interior "down surfaces", with drawings labeled to show residential, industrial, commercial, agricultural, and other uses. Operations and Infrastructure -- Recommend an orbital location for Aynah and the reasons for its selection. Aynah design will show elements of basic infrastructure required for the activities of the settlement's residents, including atmosphere/climate/weather control, food production, electrical power generation, water management, household and industrial solid waste management, internal and external communication systems, internal transportation system(s), and day/night cycle provisions. Human Factors -- Aynah will provide services that residents could expect in comfortable modern communities, variety and quantity of consumer goods, and public areas designed with long lines of sight. Provide designs of typical residential homes, clearly showing room sizes. Show spacesuit designs and airlock designs. Automation Design and Services -- Specify numbers and types of computing and information processing devices, multi-function personal electronic tools, servers, network devices, and robots required for Aynah's facility, community, and business operations. Show robot designs, clearly indicating their dimensions. Specify automation systems for maintenance, repair, and safety functions, including backup systems and contingency plans. Describe funtionalities of automation devices to enhance livability in the community, productivity in work environments, and convenience in residences. Schedule and Cost -- The proposal will include a schedule for completion and occupation of Aynah, and costs for design through construction phases of the schedule. Business Development -- Aynah will host a variety of commercial and industrial ventures. The original configuration must, however, accommodate three major business pursuits: infrastructure for refining and manufacturing reardonium parts; receiving and shipping reardonium parts; and Port of Entry for Mercury.

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