JBug students win national competition organised by the Space Science Engineering Foundation

Three boys – Ryan Ilmane, Humphrey Bedford and Dylan Odeleye, now in First Year – recently won a competition organised by the Space Science Engineering Foundation.

In the ‘Galactic Challenge’ they had to imagine the year is 2061. Halley’s Comet has returned to the Solar System and, on it, five brave scientists have landed. But their ship has malfunctioned and cannot launch. With only four months of supplies, the crew are now stranded. They imagined what they would do if they were in charge of the world’s top space rescue organisation, while the judges were looking for science, creativity and presentation as key factors in their decision as to who would be the winner.

Ryan explains: “We mixed all of our ideas, and we tried to place them into a maximum of four pages, which was a challenge. I really liked Humphrey’s rocket and how he structured the layout is so logical. Dylan O’s comic drawings are so well drawn, and we spent hours after school together to finalise the story.”

The judges said: “Realistically, saving people trapped on an asteroid is very complicated; the authors correctly anticipated that a rescue attempt would be plagued by error, and they demonstrated how they’d respond to this with numerous backup plans. This entry also offered clear diagrams of the space station and rescue vehicle, accompanied by a detailed breakdown of the features and systems, and wrapped up with an entertaining comic strip of the rescue. Great job, team!”