The Durango High School Aerospace Team did it again.
On Tuesday, the team took second place at the International Space Settlement Design Competition held at the Kennedy Space Center near Orlando, Florida. Over 15 years, the team has won or come in second every year.
“Durango has quite a bit of a reputation,” team co-sponsor Steve Powell said. “Other teams either want to be on their team or beat them. One of the advisers for a team from Wales said, ‘See you next year.’ I said, ‘If we qualify.’ She said, ‘Of course you’ll make it, you’re Durango.’”
Teams qualify through a written project proposal, and the Durango team has qualified every year except 2001, when it didn’t make the cutoff, and the first two years of the 23-year-old event, when the school did not have a team.
“Not every kid is gifted and talented or a supergeek,” Powell said. “But they are all motivated kids, motivated in all of their activities.”
In Durango, Aerospace Team is a second-semester class. Students spend the class period and late night sessions constructing their written proposal, throwing around ideas, testing theories, consulting with science and math teachers and writing. Having guaranteed class time is key to the team’s success, Powell said.
The Durango team is supported by several Fort Lewis College professors and professionals from the aerospace industry who review its proposal and “tear it apart,” which is what the kids want, Powell said.
“Qualifying is getting tougher and tougher,” he said. “You have to beat 300 or 400 teams from across the country to be one of four.”
At the “live” event in Orlando, teams are paired with teams from other schools around the world – this year, DHS students collaborated with teams from Iowa, Texas, Australia and Argentina – to form a theoretical company. The group – dubbed Vulture Aviation – had 42 hours to design Bradburydom, a settlement on Mars capable of sustaining a population of 20,000. Each company divided into specialties, including business requirements, automation-robotics and human factors.
DHS team member Paxton Scott served as company president, his sister, Abby Scott, was a systems engineer and Kyle Robinette headed up the automation section. In addition to the team’s second-place finish, Abby was given the Collaborator Award, conferred upon an individual who exemplifies communication and teamwork.
“The International Aerospace Design Competition is an experience vastly different from any other I have experienced,” Paxton Scott said. “Working with other high school students from around the globe combined with very little sleep fosters an environment that can create massive conflict but also incredible bonding.”
Longtime sponsor Daniel Garner, whose background as a gifted and talented and English teacher proved invaluable to the team, is leaving to take a teaching position elsewhere. Sabine Furtauer, who teaches math and engineering classes, will take over. Powell, who has been a co-sponsor for 12 years, has said he will continue for two more years.
“The kids don’t get complacent. They all take it seriously,” Powell said. “No one wants to be the team that doesn’t go back. The older kids train the kids coming up, and the graduated seniors are all writing emails and briefing the younger students before they leave.”
abutler@durangoherald.com
