By Ingrid Schmoutziguer, communications advisor
For the competition every team of 4 was divided into 2 groups: astronauts and scientists. While the astronauts were building their virtual rocket thinking carefully about the aerodynamics of their design, the control panel and wings, the scientists were answering questions trying to earn coins to buy hints for their astronauts.
Scientists
The scientists answered questions such as:
'Suppose the spacecraft turns off its engines in deep space near Earth, What happens to its velocity?' And: 'Calculate how long it takes for the light emitted by the sun to reach earth. Show the calculation.' Every right answer was worth an amount of coins, and with these coins students could buy hints in 3 categories: construction, controlling or science.
Master students Alex Godlewski and Simon Avontuur are both enroled in an ASML scholarship programme. This means part of their tuition fees for their master's course in Theoretical Physics is paid for by ASML and they also receive some extra training. In return the students have to spend some time inspiring students in secondary education to pursue a career in a STEM field. "We picked to recent launch of Artimis II as an inspiration for our sessions with the students', says Avontuur. "As we love this ourselves.'
'This is so much fun'
It proofed to be a big hit with the students, who tried their absolute best to reach the moon. Senika & Victoria for example really enjoyed working on something 'real'. 'It was fun that by answering the science questions, you could earn some 'hints' to better your design." Also very enthusiastic were Cameron and Shreya. 'It is interesting that you have to keep working on your rocket to make it better', says Shreya. Cameron: 'The first time we launched, we quickly realised that we didn't attach enough fuel tanks on our rocket, so we crashed'. He absolutely loves the workshop. 'This is so much fun. I love engineering, so this is just what I like.' His team's enthusiasm paid off, when they won the price - a Star Wars key fob - for the best rocket flight.