Space Settlement
Design Tournament (SSDT)
How do you build a lunar mining settlement? What does it take to build an outpost on Mars?
If these questions interest you, you might be interested in a one-of-a-kind experience available now to high school students in South Texas.
The Space Settlement Design Tournament invites high school students to learn the nitty-gritty of conceptualizing, planning, and pitching plans for future space exploration. The tournament, modeled on and developed in conjunction with the internationally famous Space Settlement Design Competition®, offers students unique insight and expertise into one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, commercial space. It is the only sanctioned tournament of its kind in South Texas.
A Vision That Expands Access to Space
The tournament is modeled on the Space Settlement Design Competition®, co-founded by aerospace engineer Anita Gale, whose industry-style challenge pioneered this "students-as-companies" format. Her vision — bringing real-world systems engineering, teamwork, and proposal writing to high school students — continues to shape how participants experience the future of space exploration.
The Expanding Frontiers (ExF) team worked closely with Anita Gale and David Cheuvront to develop a tournament model that expands access for students. This collaboration focuses on reducing barriers and creating a clear pathway so more high-school participants can take part in this opportunity.
SSDT Latin America Ambassadors
“I was not entirely sure what a career in space looked like—especially as a sociology major. I had not yet learned how to collaborate across disciplines. The tournament gave me the closest experience to seeing what my path could be. The space industry is still a blank page; we have just written our names and the date. Now we get to decide what comes next.”
