ERIC YAM HOPES to one day build his own utopia. In the meantime, he’s submitted sketches of what it may look like to NASA.
The Grade 12 Northern Secondary School student recently won a contest, hosted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, for his entry of an orbiting space colony.
“It really is the difficulty of making your own planet Earth,” Yam, 17, said. “When I was young, I had this fascination with building construction, engineering of space. The final frontier is really out there.”
The contest, judged by engineers and scientists at NASA, asked students from grades six to 12 to build a space colony that would orbit the Earth 50 years from now. It would have to accommodate 10,000 residents and 300 visitors.
“What I tried to focus on was four main aspects: modularity, mass production, the use of pre- existing technology and emphasis on social design,” Yam said.
Yam said he was ecstatic winning the contest, not only because he dreams of a career in aerospace, but because it shows that people his age care about the environment.
“Youth really care about the future. We do care about preserving the environment.”
