FHHS Aerospace Team Invited to World Finals for International Space Settlement Design

L-R: Teacher Dan Garner, Arlo Harold, Lucy Urbach, Joely Loucks, and Brandon Payne – Contributed photo

The Friday Harbor High School Aerospace Design Team has just received results from the qualifying round of the International Space Settlement Design Competition. Based on the judges’ evaluation of our work, Friday Harbor produced one of the top four design proposals in North America and are now invited to the World Finals held at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in late July.

Over two months this winter, The FHHS Aerospace Team (known as Island Orbital Technologies, or IOTech) labored over a forty-page design proposal of a space settlement capable of capturing and adjusting the orbit of an asteroid. The design team was lead by returning team members Lucy Urbach, Joely Loucks, Arlo Harold, Brandon Payne, and Evan Foley among others.

Teacher Dan Garner said, “I am extremely proud of the focus, determination, and time poured into this proposal. FHHS students put thousands of work-hours into this project and now look forward to presenting their work to the public as well as preparing to compete for a world championship title at NASA.”

Garner continued: “We are grateful to the FHHS Aerospace Design class for their combined contributions as well as the critical evaluation and technical expertise of Mike Loucks, Wade Guidry, Ross Lockwood, and John Carrier. Furthermore, we also grateful for the past support of San Juan Island School District, The Public Schools Foundation, San Juan Island Rotary, and the Lions and Leos clubs of Friday Harbor, without whose support we would not be where we are today.”

This year’s proposal design would not have been possible without following students:

• Systems Engineering: Lucy Urbach (also publication layout)
• Structural Engineering: Arlo Harold, Nick Herko, Evan Foley, Julian Brown, Jonah Strasbourger, Bailee Lambright
• Operations and Infrastructure: Brandon Payne, Emma Mughal, Henry Duke, Aidan Shannon, Emmett Carrier, Satchel Pieples, Ryker Mattox
• Human Factors: Hannah VanEvery, Sander VanHamersfeld, Nick Copley, Weston Swirtz, Nate Clarke
• Automations Engineering: Joely Loucks, Hank Erickson, Darcy Ayers, Liz Cruz, Gavin Flaum, Luke Waite
• Business and Marketing: Ally Pauls, Payton Malloy, Keegan Bailey, Jaden Jones, Octavio Olvera
• Imaging: Aida Must, Tori Polda, Keegan Bailey

Aerospace Literature and Design is taught and coached by Daniel Garner.

FHHS Principal Fred Woods said, “This is the second year in a row our aerospace team has made it to the world finals. This says much about the quality of our students as well as the dedication of our teacher, Dan Garner. Congratulations to all!”    

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