Local students taking part in NASA international space competition

Two students from St. Dominic’s College in Cabra are part of a team of students representing Ireland in the Prestigious NASA Ames Space Settlement Contest.

Alecia Dibu and Alison Koci, fifth-year biology and chemistry students at the local school, are currently in Los Angeles with their teachers and NASA team mentors, Ms Fiona Dockery and Ms Adrienne Healy, for the International Space Development Conference (ISDC) which takes place from today, May 23 to May 26.

Pictured from left: Alecia Dibu and Alison Koci

The students will showcase their project, titled “Danú”, at the conference whose previous attendees include notable figures like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

The event is also attended by Space Industry leaders and NASA scientists and engineers.

The NASA Ames Space Settlement Contest is an international space science competition aimed at challenging students to design an off-world space settlement capable of sustaining a population of over 10,000 people whilst creating an Earth like environment.

Pictured from left: Ms Fiona Dockery, Alison Koci, Alecia Dibu and Ms Adrieanne Healy

Alecia and Alision met with Northside People ahead of their big trip to LA to tell us more about their exciting project.

“We called the project Danú after a goddess from ancient Irish Mythology who personifies nature, wisdom, strength and fertility,” Alecia explains.

“We focused on the design of a settlement which could not only provide a sustainable and safe place for humans to live but which will also protect earth from the enhanced greenhouse effect.

“So how would we do this?

“For our conceptual design we placed a half-cut rotating torus which is protected by a temporary sunshade to control the amount of light hitting the earth.

“The research we worked with was very high calibre and there were some very complex concepts to study which our teachers helped us to understand.

“For example, obviously radiation from the sun would be a big hazard and how we would use technology to overcome this was vital to the success of our project.

“Despite the otherwise dangerous hazards of space life, the residents of Danú would be bioengineered so they could live a healthy life on the colony.”

Alision spoke of how both herself and Alecia were really excited to learn about the fascinating side of space settlement and travel and discover just how far humanity has progressed.

“Working together proved to be great fun actually and we had an incredible time getting to work on the project,” she said.

“Throughout the project I became more aware of where humanity is as a species and kind of what we’re heading into in the future.

“Without a doubt over the past few decades we have been evolving and progressing as a species at an exponential rate and simultaneously destroying the planet at a similar rate too, which is quite frightening when you think about it.

“The project we made is based on human settlement outside of earth, which brought attention to the fact that one day, we may not have earth because of how fast we are ruining this planet.

“Sometimes people abuse earth thinking that it’s a thing to take from when really it’s a living breathing being which is quite sad.”

Pictured from left: Ms Adrieanne Healy, Alecia Dibu, Anne Cameron (Principal) Alison Koci and Fiona Dockery

With both girls also preparing for the Leaving Cert, time management was a major issue for them. Alecia and Alison, along with their teachers Ms Dockery and Ms Healy, spent every Monday, Wednesday and Friday lunch break to go to the lab together and talk about the project.

They also spent lots of time apart outside of that at home researching and creating the project.

“Without a doubt though Ms Dockery and Ms Healy were the main catalysts in helping us get the project done to the best of our abilities, spending a lot of time and effort helping us which we are incredibly thankful for,” Alison said.

Ms Adrienne Healy said everyone at that school is so proud of both students.

“The community at St. Dominic’s are very proud of the concept that our students have researched, designed and developed over this past year,” she said.

“We are delighted that Alecia and Alison are representing Ireland in this fabulous international stem competition.

“They are excited to use this opportunity to promote women in STEM and we hope that they will be leading the way for other students to follow in their footsteps.

“This is a very big achievement by them as they are competing with the top schools from not only this country but worldwide as well.

“We are very proud of them.”

Ms Fiona Dockery expressed her gratitude to everyone who has supported the project.

“The school community has been so supportive of our fundraising efforts,” she said.

“We would like to thank Ms. Cameron, the Board of Management, the staff and all of the students at St. Dominic’s College.

“We would also like to thank the Parents Association and the community of parents, local representatives and businesses who have made very generous donations to our project fund.

“Finally, we would like to thank our commercial project sponsors – Element six , Computer Science Department of TUD (Technological University Dublin), The Community Credit union, The Education credit union,  Alpine blinds, Grants, ASTI, Lennox Suppliers,  Studyclix,  FIT, The Educational Company, Leddys Uniforms,  Exam craft and Tara Art supplies , Evans educational, DEB exams and  Folens.”