In September 2021, students from around the world participated in the International SpaceCRAFT Exploration Challenge. One Australian student, who was a One Giant Leap Australia Foundation participant, shared his experience. Rafael said, “Over the holidays, I participated in the International SpaceCRAFT Exploration Challenge (more information can be found on their website: https://www.space-teams.com and https://onegiantleapfoundation.com.au/). Our challenge involved participants from Australia, America and Egypt. The program ran for six days and essentially was a guide on how to inhabit another planet. Every day we would have a morning welcoming live stream at 10 am, after this we would watch a series of well-planned and exciting lessons. These lessons could be about physics, planet history, space travel, space crafts, the list goes on! After we watched these detailed lessons, we would watch a tutorial on the activity for that day and enter the specially programmed application for our activities. The activities included scanning a planet for landing sites, building a spacecraft, landing you spacecraft, or even scanning for materials on the surface of the planet. My personal favourite activity was landing the space shuttle from space, take my word for it when I say it was not easy in the slightest. The space shuttle is often referred to as a flying brick, it is hard to control and is not aerodynamic at all. My group had fun with this activity and ended the day with a score of 99.75, which ironically was a better score than the people that actually made the platform! Once the day had ended, they finished it off with a guest speaker, this guest speaker ranged from people involved in the Mars City Design Program, to Astronauts that have been to the ISS and have piloted a space shuttle themselves! After they had finished with giving their initial lecture, they would answer audience questions that I and many others really enjoyed listening to. All in all, I really enjoyed this experience that I received a full scholarship to and would definitely do it again in the future if given the opportunity.
“I would highly recommend anyone interested in Space, Engineering, STEM or even Astrophysics to check out this program.”
If you are interested in participating in the next Challenge, mark your calendar for 4-9 July 2022. Watch the One Giant Leap Australia Foundation Website and social media for registration information.