Support Alison and Alecia's NASA Space Settlement Mission

This year two students from our school, St. Dominic’s College in Cabra have been chosen to be part of team of students representing Ireland in the Prestigious NASA Ames Space Settlement Contest (now administered by the NSS).

This is an international space science competition aimed to challenge students to design an off-world space settlement capable of sustaining a population of over 10,000 people whilst creating an Earth like environment. Our fifth year biology and chemistry students Alecia and Alison, alongside their peers in St. Flannan’s College, have titled their project "Danú". Danú is a goddess from ancient Irish Mythology who personifies nature, wisdom, strength and fertility. The students concentrated on the design of a settlement which will not only provide a sustainable and safe place for humans to live but which will also protect earth from the enhanced greenhouse effect. Their conceptual design places a half-cut rotating torus protected by a temporary sunshade, proposed to control the amount of light hitting the earth. The residents of Danú will access resources from biomining asteroids and will be bioengineered to allow them to live a healthy life on the colony, despite the otherwise dangerous hazards of space life.

The community at St. Dominic’s are very proud of the concept that our students have researched, designed and developed over this past year. We are delighted that Alecia and Alison are representing Ireland in this fabulous international stem competition; they are excited to use this opportunity to promote women in STEM and we hope that they will be leading the way for other students to follow in their footsteps.

The International Space Development Conference (ISDC) will take place in Los Angeles from May 23rd to May 26th, 2024. At this conference our team of students will present their ideas and engage in workshops with their peers from around the world. Previous attendees at this event have included, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and the event is attended by Space Industry leaders and NASA scientists and engineers.

ISDC - International Space Development Conference

Our fundraising now begins to allow the attendance of our two students and two teachers to the ISDC event. This is an incredible opportunity for our two students. We are seeking your donations for our Space Settlement Design Team!