Senior Alex Reeves wins grand prize in NASA design contest

Greenhills senior Alex Reeves has won the grand prize in an international space settlement design contest, besting nearly 1,000 entries from 3,000 students in 21 countries. 

Reeves learned last week that he’d captured the top honor in the 2015 Ames Space Settlement Design Contest for his work on The Freyr Project. The contest is run jointly by NASA’s Ames Research Center, San Jose State University, and the National Space Society (NSS). In addition to a $5,000 prize, Reeves will address and present his paper to the National Space Society’s 34th annual International Space Development Conference in Toronto in late May. 

“When I found out about the contest last summer, I thought it would be cool to enter and I started researching and writing,” said Reeves, who has had a lifelong fascination with space travel. “All through the fall and winter, I kept at it, and over time, realized that I had written almost 250 pages on space settlement.”

He estimates that he spent about 400 hours on the project, which  addresses, among other things, the logistics involved in space settlement, including food, transportation, power, sustainability, and materials. His faculty sponsor was Dr. Deano Smith.

“I tried to use materials and concepts that are either in existence or close,” he said.  “A lot of the papers submitted have outlandish and unproven concepts, but I tried to keep mine as close to reality as possible.”

The contest is for students up to 18 years of age. Students can enter as individuals or form a group that submits a joint entry. This year, contest organizers received entries from every corner of the globe, including China, Pakistan, Nepal, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Turkey, and Sri Lanka.

Reeves plans to study aerospace or mechanical engineering in college, and hopes to work in the space industry after college. His paper is available online.