Last weekend, students from Riddlesdown Collegiate and Chipping Norton School competed to design the 4500 person Astram settlement in orbit around Mars.

Rockdonnell Corporation (Chipping Norton) had the innovative idea of building their settlement on the rocky moon Phobos, taking advantage of the natural resources it provided. Dougledyne Astosystems (Riddlesdown) went for a Space Odyssey-esque rotating station, and winning the event with their impressive composite radiation shielding, and detailed waste-processing systems.

Both teams performed fantastically, and we look forward to seeing them again in the future.

Very many thanks to our team of volunteers, and to our hosts, the Earth Sciences department of the University of Oxford.