The students of “Tudor Vianu” National College clinched the Grand Prize in the NASA competition, marking the second time the school has achieved this remarkable feat. These students are part of the “100 Young People for the Development of Romania” campaign.
A team of 12 students from the “Tudor Vianu” National College won the Grand Prize at the International “National Space Society” – NASA Space Settlement Contest. It’s the first time in the last 6 years that a team from Romania has won the Grand Prize. Furthermore, the “Tudor Vianu” National College is the second educational institution in the world to win this prestigious competition for the second time, the first being in 2015.
Every year, NASA, ISDC and NSS organize the world’s most prestigious aerospace development competition. Tens of thousands of students have designed a space habitat, and the winners are invited to represent their country and high school in front of an audience of leading researchers, astronauts, entrepreneurs and experts in the field.
The “Project Nova 2” project was designated the best of 5,200 submitted applications, made by 29,000 students from 28 countries around the world. Nova Station will be a permanent toroidal space colony located in the orbit of Mars, supporting more than 2,000 tourists, scientists and permanent settlers, our team put a lot of thought into deciding every aspect of the space settlement.
The 12 winning students are: Maria Neagoie, Medeea Marinescu, Luxin Matasaru, Mihai Priboi, Vlad Carasel, Tudor Nicorescu, Andrei Ciobanu, Hristoforos Koutsioukis, Eliza Radu, Vlad Dimulescu, Alex Paun and Luca Teodorescu, and the coordinating teacher is Ioana Stoica. The motto behind their work is “per aspera ad astra” – “through difficulties to the stars”, expressing their continued commitment and determination to make new discoveries in space exploration.
The next step in this journey is to present the project at the International Space Development Conference in Los Angeles at the end of May, one of the most important aerospace conferences in the world – a tremendous opportunity for the team, the high school and the country.
In 2015, but also this year, the students who won the Grand Prize were coordinated by teacher Ioana Stoica, who claims that those from NASA appreciate the intelligence and creativity of the students from Vianu because not everyone can realize such projects and because the students are always very serious.
The students were enrolled in the “100 young people for the development of Romania” campaign, carried out by the Dan Voiculescu Foundation for the Development of Romania.