This Friday, students of the United Space School, spanning across 23 different countries, gathered at the Friendswood Public Library with a 2 week long goal, to plan a realistic trip to Mars, alongside their team.
From suits to rovers to habitat, across the next week, students will have to use knowledge from this week’s lectures and their own expertise to tackle their assigned role in the mission to Mars.
“We know that the next big frontier is Mars, humanity has already been to the moon,” Head of School Carolina said. “Mars is that unknown that requires creativity, new ideas, and well what’s better than the next generation to do that?”
Since its start, the program has seen incredible progress in its operations, as reflected by the program’s Director of Education, Glenn Johnson.
“We started in 1999 I believe, and back then we were using, you know, transparency slides,” Johnson said. “So we’ve expanded, now the students are using, of course, computers and PowerPoint and all kinds of things.”
Due to its rigorous selection process, the process of applying happens months in advance to the program’s official start date. Across the world, students apply because of their love for STEM fields and are interviewed, tested, and challenged before being admitted.
“I love physics,” South Africa student representative William Segar said. “I love maths, further Maths, Physics at my school. So I’ve read up a bit about rocketry. And then I heard of a friend from my school, who came here two years ago, and he really recommended it.”
After admission, they still had to be assigned to their teams, which occurs through an extensive placement process.
“About a month and a half ago, they gave us five sets of assignments, one for each team, about 20 Questions long, and we had to do extensive research into each of those topics,” New Zealand student representative Adam Charles said. “Then we “get chosen into our specific groups regarding on how well we did on those topics.”
Although the program provides extensive scientific progress, it also is able to grow its students in their communication and leadership skills.
“It’s not like regular teamwork like you get in school,” Argentina student representative Aitana Ferreyra said. “So you get how people think of other cultures, solve problems, how they think. It’s a different way to think. And I think that more diversity is better because you have different, like crazy , different points of view.”
