ISSDC · Asia Runner-Up · Global Runner-Up
Space Settlement Design
Designing Flectel — a self-sustaining space habitat — as Human Factors Minister for a global finalist team competing in the International Space Settlement Design Competition.
Engineering a City in Orbit
The International Space Settlement Design Competition asks high school teams to produce complete technical proposals for space habitats. Over six months, our team designed Flectel — a settlement for thousands — and earned Runner-Up honors at both Asia and Global Finals.
// The Challenge
Systems Thinking at Extreme Scale
My role was Human Factors Minister. While others calculated radiation shielding and orbital mechanics, I answered a quieter question: How do humans live, work, and thrive where Earth is just a blue dot in the window?
Every ‘human-friendly’ feature was mass- and energy-traceable. Private quarters versus communal spaces directly impacted structural mass, air circulation loads, and psychological health outcomes documented from Antarctic stations and submarine missions.
Crew Selection & Training
A comprehensive framework for selecting and preparing residents for long-duration isolation, including psychological screening and skills certification protocols.
Habitat Zoning
Optimized layout design balancing work, rest, exercise, and social zones — validated against Antarctic and submarine habitat studies for psychological sustainability.
Life-Support Interfaces
Human-centered design of air, water, and waste systems ensuring intuitive operation under stress, with redundant failsafes and clear status indicators.
Governance Structure
Social organization models for autonomous communities, including conflict resolution mechanisms, resource allocation, and educational systems for space-born children.
Project Gallery
Key Results
2×
Runner-Up Honors
50+
Slide Proposal
12h
Daily Sprints
20+
Team Members
The Architecture of Collaboration
ISSDC taught me that the hardest engineering problem is not physics — it is coordination. In a team of twenty students across languages and time zones, I learned to translate between ‘human needs’ and ‘engineering constraints.’ A request for ‘more natural light’ became a calculation of window aperture, radiation exposure, and thermal load.
This experience reshaped my leadership philosophy. Being a ‘minister’ meant not commanding but integrating — ensuring every subsystem served the people who would inhabit it. The same systems-thinking guides my Earth-bound work: whether designing water purifiers or pollution models, I start with the human experience and work backward to the technology.
Technology is valuable when it disappears into the lives of the people it serves.
Common Questions
What was the competition format?
Teams receive a Request for Proposal (RFP) from aerospace engineers playing ‘client.’ Over a compressed timeline, we produced a 50-slide technical proposal covering structure, operations, automation, business, and human factors.
What did Human Factors Minister involve?
I led crew psychology, habitat layout, life-support interface design, and social governance — ensuring all human-centric features were traceable to mass, energy, and structural budgets.
What is Flectel?
Flectel is our designed space settlement capable of supporting thousands of residents. It addresses every subsystem from orbital dynamics to educational curriculum for children born in space.
What distinguished your proposal?
Judges specifically noted the integration of human factors into overall system architecture as a strength that distinguished us from purely technical submissions.
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