Project Specifications

1. Research past plans and present developments in space-based manufacturing in Earth orbit, the Moon or Mars, and the asteroid belt. Select one of these locations for further research and development.
2. For the selected location, research:
   • Potential sources of materials, advantages and challenges of availability
   • Unique capabilities of ISM compared with manufacturing on Earth
   • Unique challenges of ISM to overcome
   • Applications and products most likely to be manufactured
   • How manufactured products will get to users: technical, logistical and cost challenges
   • Companies currently developing ISM systems for that location
   • Government-funded and commercial business models that could enable broad adoption of ISM, from supporting space exploration to serving markets on Earth
3. Based on this research, develop a speculative development timeline from 2021 to 2050 with milestones and events that could lead to a thriving commercial ISM sector in that location. Outline the assumptions that go into the timeline related to satellite communications, earth observation, space exploration, the commercialization of such activities as lunar and asteroid mining, and the commercial success on Earth of products manufactured in space.
4. On the foundation of the timeline, write a future history of the success of ISM in the chosen location and its contribution to life on Earth and/or in space. Success means that ISM becomes a self-sustaining sector serving customers in government and business. In telling the story, you may reference existing companies and processes as well as imagining future companies and processes necessary to achieve success. An effective future history reflects the reality that some products don’t succeed, some companies fail while others achieve success, and new technologies create unexpected surges of growth.

Team Specifications

Teams must be comprised entirely of students at one university. Teams will be limited to one per university, and team candidacy must be submitted through that university's SEDS chapter. We recommend between 3 and 10 members per team, but we encourage team leadership to include as many interested chapter members as possible. Individual team members must maintain student status at the university naming the team and may only contribute to one project at a time.

Since this is a student project, SSPI and SEDS expect student team members to do the vast majority of the work. Mentors are assigned to assist teams with overcoming the learning curve, but should not do substantial work on the project, except when necessity dictates (driven by, e.g., proprietary software). All contributing team members should be credited on the team roster, which is submitted with the project.

Image by Greg Trent, courtesy nasa.gov