UC Student-Designed Project Takes First Place in National Engineering Competition

Will space explorers one day be gardening on Mars? A team of seven University of Cincinnati aerospace engineering students earned first place in a prestigious national engineering competition for their design around that idea.

The UC concept for an “Inflatable Martian Greenhouse” won first place at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Foundation Undergraduate Team Space Design Competition. A team of seven UC students spent their senior year producing the plans. Results of the national competition were announced in August.

“There are currently four robotic spacecraft heading for Mars, taking advantage of the close approach of Earth and Mars this year,” says team advisor Trevor Williams, UC professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics. “The design the students developed was very topical: a prototype of a greenhouse that could be used by astronauts visiting Mars to live off the land while there.”

The UC team tied for first place with a team from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Each team will collect $2,000 in prize money.

“Each year, this aerospace professional society puts out a series of design competitions for individual teams. This year’s competition challenged students to create an inflatable plant growth module to send to Mars,” explains team leader Kate Grendell, 24, of Cleveland, who graduated from UC in June with her bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering. She’ll be joining the University of Cincinnati master’s program in aerospace engineering this fall.

“The goal of the project was to design a greenhouse that would flourish for five to seven years in the dust and wind of the Martian environment – finding a way to grow and monitor the plant life, plus collect and reuse water and recycle the waste gasses from the plants. Our team took the initiative to follow the entire design process, from the launch from earth to deployment on Mars,” Grendell continued.

Grendell will represent the UC team as she presents their design at the AIAA Space 2003 Conference Sept. 23 in Long Beach, CA.

Other UC team members are:

• Sharyl Byram of Toledo, Ohio
• Matt Abate of Cleveland, Ohio
• Nick Overman of Westwood, Ohio
• Justin Register of North College Hill
• Eric Riedl of Colerain, Ohio
• Anthony D’Agostino of Columbus, Ohio

All of the students graduated from UC in June with their bachelor’s degrees in aerospace engineering.