Writes Matthew M. (L6th)
A (very) early foggy Saturday morn brought together a group of intrepid Sixth Formers looking to display their engineering and business acumen on the large stage that is the UK Space Design Competition.
We ventured to the far-off lands of Egham and, once off the coach at the Royal Holloway University, we were escorted to a lecture theatre where we were briefed on the day and assigned out teams. The Taylors’ team joined St Helens, Notting Hill, Ealing High School and Newlands Girls’ School to form Archer Valentine, a high-end, luxury space travel company, willing to provide the best quality for their clients regardless of financial cost. The task for the day was simple: design a research facility that can be easily transported when necessary. The only catch? It was on Mars.
The first step for the team was to elect President and Vice Presidents of Engineering and Business and Management (VPE and VPBM). These roles where boldly taken up by our very own Chaitya J. (U6th), Xander M. (U6th) and myself (L6th). With that, we divided off into subgroups and the work began.
There were four sub teams: Mission Systems, Human Factors, Operations and Infrastructure Management. Each team was made up of a mix of schools, encouraging interaction between the students that were responsible for planning and researching their section of the project before it was all brought together in a presentation.
After the completion of the of the PowerPoint and its submission, the team waited in anticipation, while snacking on some much-deserved pizza. Eventually, all the teams were called into the Lecture Theatre, and we took our seats for the group presentations. Archer Valentine went first. Our PowerPoint was noted for its ‘interesting slide design’ and our project’s design replicating ‘origami’. There’s something to be said for a solution so efficient that it is compared to an ancient and sophisticated Japanese art!
After our presentation, there was then time for questions from the judges, which Xander M. (U6ths) and I handled effectively and with conviction, satisfying the judges. The other groups followed. Their ideas showed a range of practicality, from one self-proclaimed ‘Russian Caterpillar’ to inflatable radiation shields! The questions, too, were handled with a range of difficulty. Some groups breezed through them, while others stumbled under the pressure from these experts and the large audience.
After substantial deliberation, the results were announced to us. Despite all the blood sweat and technical ‘difficulties’, it was revealed that Archer Valentine had in fact been pipped to the post by another team: Condor. As true Taylors’ gentlemen, we graciously congratulated the winning team, before leaving to head home.
Brought together through the sorrow of the defeat (and the post Dominos bliss), in true Taylors’ fashion, the boys drove home to chants of Homo Plantat, and enjoying, somehow, some more leftover pizza, all in high spirits, with the knowledge of a job well done.
Congratulations to the team of Chaitya J. (U6th), Xander M. (U6th), Rayyan T. (U6th), Kian C. (U6th), Haroon S. (U6th), Matt M. (L6th), Dhruv B. (L6th), James C. (L6th), Pellis P. (L6th) and Dhylan H. (L6th) for our strong performance and thank you to Mr Collins and Mr Vernici for taking us!
