DHS Aerospace Design Team

On Feb. 26, 2011, the Discovery Museum hosted the DHS Aerospace Design Team to facilitate a red team review of the students' annual competition to "design a space settlement in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter."

The event — which was a critical and comprehensive review of the DHS Aerospace Team's design concept — was orchestrated by Discovery Museum Board of Directors President Dave Nulton. Nulton organized an all-star panel of scientists and critical thinkers with expertise in design, construction, mining, interplanetary transportation, finance, sociology, medicine, and other areas that the DHS Aerospace Team had to consider to design a successful space settlement.

Nulton, a retired nuclear engineer, was among the 14-person brain trust of local professors, professionals, retired scientists and engineers, and other community minded individuals with experiences and backgrounds suitable for reviewing the DHS Aerospace Team concept. Also among the reviewers was William D. (Bill) Mensch, the inventor of the microprocessor, holder of 22 science patents, and for whom the museum's Mesch Spark Shop is named.

The event offered hard questions and comments from these experts, but the tone was decidedly friendly and helpful, which in scientific circles is known as a red team review. This program was a processional "dry run" of circumstances that the DHS Aerospace Team encounters as it competes against other high school teams in the United States and world, as part of a national and international competition to determine who can design the best space community. Crafted to improve the DHS Team's confidence, the red team review also may have uncovered issues or areas where the team might decide to change and/or improve its concept prior to entering the competitive phase.

The event was scheduled in the Durango Discovery Museum's Powerhouse Theater.