Image: Asteroid mining illustration from 2020 Cities in Space winner Allen Academy (High School category).

STEAMSPACE Education Outreach^® is hosting its 7th Annual Cities in Space^® Student Competition and Conference at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas on March 24th, 2023 from 9:00am to 5:30pm. The event will be sponsored by National Space Society, Moody Foundation, Kepler Space Institute, and the Department of Natural Sciences at Huston-Tillotson University.

School teams should sign up now through the STEAMSPACE Education Outreach website. Registration closes on February 28, but may close early if filled! Scholarships are available for those that need financial support, and lunch and snacks will be provided for all participants.

STEAMSPACE^® exists to build a pipeline of talent for the aerospace industry. Exemplifying that, Cuatro Hanover will receive the First LAUNCH Award this year for his consistent progress, exploration, and collaboration year over year. Cuatro began competing in Cities in Space^® competitions in 2016 when he was in 8th grade and after high school received a scholarship to study Aerospace Engineering at University of Alabama at Huntsville.

“Cities in Space competitions allowed me to explore my passion for aerospace and the future of humanity amongst the stars in an interesting and thought provoking way. I was able to work on a project that was a great guiding light in what I seek to do.” (Cuatro Hanover, 2023)

The competition will offer school based teams the opportunity to apply their STEAM (science, technology, art, and math) knowledge to both design and present their off-world habitats which will be judged by industry professionals, scientists, entrepreneurs, and academics. Students will further scaffold their learning when they meet students from other schools as well as their Huston-Tillotson Science and University of Texas Rocket Engineering Lab mentors.

Huston-Tillotson Science and University of Texas Rocket Engineering Lab students are important partners that model for younger students the pathway towards STEM based careers. Huston-Tillotson Head of Science Department, Dr. Amanada Massino and her students have been part of Cities in Space^® since 2016 and TREL has been involved since 2019. Both universities understand the mission and importance of growing a pipeline of aerospace talent.

To learn more about the organization’s approach and impact please visit STEAMSPACE Education Outreach.