All systems go for Perse student’s international space mission
Sai Batchu (Year 11) has rocketed his way to a place at the International Space Settlement Design Competition (ISSDC) for the second year in a row.
In 2023, Sai was part of the UK team selected for the ISSDC after being part of the winning ‘company’ at the UK Space Design Competition (UKSDC).
However, this year he has been invited to bring his experience to support the African representative team in their ISSDC mission at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in July.
Sai said: “It’s amazing to be going again as I really enjoyed the whole experience last year. It was ‘out of this world’ as they say!
“I’m approaching it on a slightly different scale because I have a lot of takeaways from last year’s competition. One big thing was underestimating the skill level of the other teams last year. When we went into it, we all knew they were going to be strong, but we didn’t realise just how strong they were.
“The degree of competition is so difficult and things can change in the blink of an eye, even when you think you’re doing well.
“I don’t have any regrets about last year, but I feel I’ve been given a lifeline being able to come back to the competition in a different role.”
Along with another British student, Sai has been chosen to help the new African team as the ISSDC looks to expand its reach globally.
He said: “I got an invitation from the UKSDC board asking if I’d be interested in this, so I grabbed the opportunity as I dreamed of going again.
“One of my roles will co-ordinate communications online with the rest of the team beforehand as well as being a competitor myself. I’ve also been asked to step up into a leadership role, which I was fearful of doing last year just because of the scale of the competition, but I think with my experience, I feel I could do that now.”
Sai takes confidence from being elected ‘president’ of his ‘company’ at the UKSDC national finals at Imperial College in March, when he led a 60-strong team in a challenge, set in the year 2047, to design a space elevator linking the Moon with a point in its orbit before pitching their project to a judging panel.
Fellow Perse pupil Freddie Sudeep (Year 11), who was part of the team, won an award for design and innovation for his idea to use silicon from lunar surface rock in the building of solar panels for the project.
Sai said: “At the nationals last year, I was an ‘engineer’, but I just saw there was clearly a big inefficiency if two people were working on the same thing without talking to each other, so I tried to help ensure our department inter-linked with the others in the ‘company’.
The ISSDC will pose ‘companies’ a challenge based on expanding human economy and settlement within colonies on the Moon over the course of three intense days of competition.
Sai said: “Last year we tried to predict what would come up and our predictions were wrong. From that, it seems the best way to prepare for the competition isn’t to plan for what might come up, but to consider what knowledge and skills can we gain to be able to tackle a challenge better.
“I’ll be looking at what I can do to improve my leadership and technical skills as I want to be able to do my job as best I can and contribute to the team.”
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