The International Space Settlement Design Competition, more commonly known as "SpaceSet", "ISSDC" or "Inters", is an annual competition founded by Anita Gale, Dick Edwards, and Rob Kolstad. The competition is supported by various Aerospace, Engineering, and Education organizations, including NASA. The competition is for high school students and simulates the experience of working on an aerospace company's proposal team. The teams, known as 'companies', are asked to design a space colony to fulfill a Request for Proposal (RFP).
History In 1983, when plans were being made by the Boy Scouts of America for the 1984 National Exploring Conference, the steering group for the Science and Engineering Cluster were looking to include an event related to space. Evelyn Murray, from the Society of Women Engineers, knew Anita Gale, who worked on the Space Shuttle program. Letters followed, recommending and expanding ideas, and concluding with a telephone call between Gale in California and Rob Kolstad (a member of the steering group) in Texas. They brainstormed and created the basic structure of the event to be both a design competition and a management simulation game. Gale and Dick Edwards wrote the materials for the game. The first Space Settlement Design Competition was conducted at Ohio State University in August 1984, with approximately 75 participants. The event proved highly successful. Astronaut Story Musgrave stopped by to watch design presentations. The Explorers' Science and Engineering Cluster (headed by Brian Archimbaud) was impressed by this event and it was decided to ensure it would continue in some form. Dr. Peter Mason and the Space Exploration Post at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, agreed to try the format at a local level. The first SpaceSet (name proposed by Nathan Hawkins from the Space Exploration Post) was held in 1986. Eighteen SpaceSet competitions were conducted at JPL, with continuing participation by Anita Gale, Dick Edwards, Rob Kolstad, and Dr. Mason. As many as 160 young people participated each year, with a different design challenge set at each event. The competition's organizers requested space settlement designs in Earth orbit, on the Moon, on and in orbit around Mars, and on and in orbit around Venus (some limited atmospheric alterations were included to make it habitable). One Earth-orbiting settlement was required to be capable of moving to another solar system. The first annual national competition was organized when SpaceWeek International Executive Director Brian Archimbaud considered that a Space Settlement Design Competition would be an appropriate inclusion to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the first lunar landing. The national event took place on July 17 to 19, 1994, in Washington, D.C. Astronauts and cosmonauts recruited as volunteers for this event were so impressed with its educational value, that they insisted that it continue as an annual event. After Brian Archimbaud left SpaceWeek International in 1994, the organization decided not to continue supporting the program. Epcot in Walt Disney World agreed in 1995 to help Gale and Edwards meet the promise made to the astronauts and cosmonauts. In 1996, the competition acquired new hosts, the Center for Space Education and NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Sponsorship by The Boeing Company made continuation of an annual International Space Settlement Design Competitions possible. In 2001, the KSC venue of the competition was moved to more spacious facilities at the Kurt Debus Conference Center, operated by the KSC Visitor Complex. In 2005 this facility was unavailable due to a planned Space Shuttle flight, and alternate arrangements were made at hotels in Titusville. When a 2006 Space Shuttle flight made KSC facilities unavailable again, the competition's organizers decided to permanently move finalist competitions to the Gilruth Center at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The ISSDC has since returned to KSC as its primary venue for its finalist competition. Volunteer efforts that make the competition possible are contributed by members of Sections of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Texas and Orange County (California), the Society of Women Engineers in Texas, the Boeing Company, NASA JSC, and other entities in the area around JSC. In addition to SpaceSet at JPL, local events based on the Space Settlement Design Competition format have been conducted for NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center (Antelope Valley and Victor Valley, California), NASA Johnson Space Center (Houston, Texas), and NASA White Sands Test Facility (Las Cruces, New Mexico). The idea of a semi-finalist competition was first suggested by Mark Shaw from Brisbane. In 2004, advisers of a finalist team from Patiala asked if a competition could be conducted in Asia. Within months, procedures for the first-ever semi-finalist competition were developed by Gale and Edwards, with Abhishek Agarwal in India, and travel was arranged through a generous donation from The Boeing Company. The first semi-finalist competition was conducted at the American Center in Delhi in December 2004. Mark Shaw assembled a committee that conducted the first Australian semi-finalist competition in January 2007. Starting in 2008, the local JSC event was declared an ISSDC semi-final, and regional competitions selected finalists from Latin American and Eastern Europe. A semi-final for the UK and Western Europe was established in 2010. This has largely served to select UK students to form the UK and Western EU teams at the ISSDC final as of January 2020, due to the lack of regional competitions in Western Europe. In 2026 the first African team was sent to the competition. Representing South Africa, the team won their first time competing. In 2008, the competition was recognized with presentations of two awards to Gale. The National Space Society presented the Space Pioneer Award in the category of Educator. The Boeing Company presented the William Allen Cup for Exceptional Volunteer Service.
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