Viasat Beyond: Space” STEM competition finalists

The five finalists are pictured above. They are, from left to right: Isabella Hughes, Krish Thakrar, Ash Goldsmith, Mesha Tennyson and Amar Birring.

Ash, a 16-year-old from the Wirral, was the winner of the event. Alongside Ash, who will receive first prize of £7,500, 16-year-old Krish Thakrar, from North London, and 17-year-old Mesha Tennyson, from Lincolnshire, won second and third place prizes of £3,750 and £1,875 for their concepts, respectively.

Ash presented his concept for a ‘housekeeping’ satellite to help space sustainability. Krish’s idea focused on a new coating for spacecraft to minimise atmospheric light pollution and support astronomy, while Mesha presented a space debris collector and fixer using AI detection cameras and electromagnets.

“Being in this competition has been amazing, and everyone should be incredibly proud because anyone could have won,” said Ash Goldsmith.

“I think space sustainability is important to us all, because we have all benefited from satellite technology at some point in our daily lives. We need to keep inspiring the next generation because, without them, we won’t solve this problem: we want to keep the valuable resource that is space open for everyone to use.”

The competition, which launched last autumn, invited students from Years 12 and 13 in the UK to submit their ideas for space sustainability.

The Viasat Beyond panel of expert judges included Royal Institution Director Katherine Mathieson, Space Influencer Camille Bergin, aka ‘The Galactic Gal’, Viasat’s VP of Space Systems Dr. Mark Dickinson, Delivery Director of the Ministry of Defence’s Skynet satellite system Steven Fisher, and Ray Fielding, Head of Space Sustainability at the UK Space Agency.

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