Noosphere continues to build an ecosystem of space creativity in Ukraine, despite the war, young Ukrainians must develop their talents, dream and make their dreams come true. One such dream is to fly to the Moon and plant the flag of Ukraine there, and recently Noosphere has provided such an opportunity to young space enthusiasts. How? Read in this article.
Last week, the second all-Ukrainian virtual rocket modeling competition Noosphere Space Games. Middle edition was held. The mission of the competition was to assemble a rocket that will be able to deliver a crew to the moon, install the flag of Ukraine on it (albeit, so far — virtual), and return to Earth unscathed. While working on the projects, the participants studied thematic online resources, held numerous discussions in the competition chat and even helped each other, even though they were rivals.
Generally 850 schoolchildren and students under the age of 18 joined Noosphere Space Games. Middle edition. The participants worked on the mission for two and a half weeks and competed for a prize fund of 1,200 USD, participation in the competition was free. There were space enthusiasts from Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Poltava, Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Vinnytsia, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Lviv, Cherkasy, Khmelnytskyi, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Zakarpattia, Zhytomyr and Chernivtsi regions.
Participants worked on the projects in the Kerbal Space Program simulation game — one of the most successful space flight simulators, which takes into account almost all factors affecting the launch of space rockets. Air resistance, spacecraft mass, fuel consumption, gravity, atmospheric drag, and many other technological variables had to be taken into account. Noosphere Space Games took place in Ukraine for the second time. The mission of the Junior edition was to launch a satellite into orbit and return, the participants were children and teenagers under the age of 14.
Winners of the Noosphere Space Games. Middle edition became:
1st place – Timur Tsyganov, 16 years old, Vyshneve
2nd place – Ihor Makhinya, 17 years old, Kyiv
3rd place – Artem Naidych, 18 years old, Rivne
4th place – Dmytro Bodniak, 16 years old, Chernivtsi
5th place – Mykhailo Korbut, 18 years old, Chernivtsi
“A lot of people were afraid to share information, but I was quite active in the chat discussions and helping others. In my opinion, you should always communicate with people and help each other, this will help you get the best result,” says Timur Tsyganov, the winner of the competition.
“The design of my rocket was radically changed 5 or 6 times. Every time I thought that it couldn’t get any better, but I was wrong. Never give up and never say never.” – says Ihor Makhinya, second place.
“I would like to thank the organizers for this opportunity. I started playing Kerbal Space Program sometime in 2013, I was just old enough to participate in the Noosphere Space Games. Junior edition. Then there was no such thing, and unfortunately I abandoned this game. Such competitions are a very strong motivation, so I decided to come back.” – says Artem Naidych, third place.
The organizers of the competition were the NGO “Association Noosphere” in collaboration with the Ukraine Spacemodeling Sport Federation. The purpose of the competition is to popularize rocketry, an important component of the STEM ecosystem, which Noosphere has been developing in Ukraine for 7 years in a row.