Links to Useful Resources
Legacy Space Settlement Contest Guides:
Al Globus, Emeritus Contest Director
NSS Libraries and Journals:
- NSS Library including the NSS Space Settlement Library
- NSS Space Settlement Journal, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal on all aspects of space settlement.
- The National Space Society Space Settlement Page
Books on "The High Frontier":
To learn about orbital space settlements, consider reading the contest namesake’s original work (O’Neill, 1976), some early believers (Heppenheimer, 1977), and a more recent take on the challenges and opportunities of the High Frontier (Marotta and Globus, 2018).
- O’Neill, G. K. (1976). The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space. New York, NY: William Morrow and Company, Inc.
- Heppenheimer, T. A. (1977). Colonies in Space. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books.
- Marotta, T. and Globus, A. (2018). The High Frontier: An Easier Way. Scotts Valley, California: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Artificial Gravity and Space Settlement Design Resources:
- Hall, T. W. (2000) SpinCalc: an artificial-gravity calculator in Javascript. Last revision 2018, September 9. https://www.artificial-gravity.com/sw/SpinCalc/
- Strout, J. High Frontier: The Space Colony Simulation Game version 0.27.Last revision 2017, May 12. http://highfrontier.com/
Free Computer-aided Design (CAD) Software:
- TinkerCAD – https://www.tinkercad.com/
- AutoDesk Fusion 360 – https://www.autodesk.com/campaigns/education/fusion-360
- Blender – https://www.blender.org/
General Tips & Best practices
- Avoid entries longer than 50 pages.
- Consider including a one-page executive summary on the best features of your entry. Be sure to include original ideas, major focus, and any parts particularly well done in the executive summary. This will help the judges find the best parts of your entry.
- Avoid including material not directly related to your space settlement or settlement-related issue. This is a space settlement contest, and marginally related material will make it difficult for the judges. If they can’t find your space settlement elements easily, you won’t score well.
- Do your best to get the science right and make your design as quantitative as possible.
- Be creative. Surprise the judges. Put something of your own personality into your work.
- Consider designing a settlement that you would really like to live in.
- Consider alternate possibilities and clearly describe why you made the choices you did.
- Present your material clearly and neatly.
Finally, all entries other than Artistic and Literary Merit should include a bibliography. We want to know where you got your ideas and materials. The best entries always have properly cited references and identify all image sources, including AI-generated images. There are several examples of acceptable citations on this page (primarily using APA style), including some you might want to include in your own bibliography. We do not enforce a required citation style, but we do emphasize professional citations and bibliographies and account for them in our adjudication.
