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High school students wanting to keep their feet on the ground while still getting a good feel for what it would be like to live on Mars are encouraged to participate in the South Dakota Space Design Competition at South Dakota State University March 8-9.

The contest is part of an international event sponsored by Industry Simulation Education, which has been designing aerospace engineering contests since 1984, and is being hosted in South Dakota by ³ÉÈËÊÓƵ’s Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering.

Working as teams, students will be tasked with developing a request for proposals for a settlement in space. The contest will focus on initial settlements and beginning economic activity near and on Mars, so it is a good chance for students to exercise creativity and gain knowledge about what it takes to live in space.

³ÉÈËÊÓƵ graduate engineering students will serve as mentors.

Project specifics will not be announced to students until they arrive on campus March 8. Also, students will be matched with other students they do not know in order to add to the communications challenge. The top 10 students will advance to the world championships at Kennedy Space Center in July.

The contest begins at 8 a.m. March 8 and goes through the night with students to make their 20-minute presentations Sunday morning. Early Sunday afternoon one team will be announced as the South Dakota finalist. The event is to be completed by 3 p.m.

The cost is $175 per student and includes meals, accommodations, all required material and an event T-shirt.

For more information, contact Jennifer Bickett, event coordinator at the Lohr College of Engineering at Jennifer.Bickett@sdstate.edu or 605-688-6792.