Emily M. (Grade 7) is a finalist for the EngineerGirl essay contest.

Her essay addressed the following prompt:

Tell a story about a person learning to live on a new world while traveling through space.

Learning…A lifelong journey. These are stories from the spaceship Vestigo. Its 20-year journey will take a large group of people from Earth to a new home outside our solar system…

The passengers are from 2- to 50-years-old and will have little contact with Earth. They will have access to books and other resources onboard the ship. Many are experts in different fields.

Vestigo is equipped with artificial gravity and large areas for growing food. Living quarters are like compact apartments.

Everyone onboard will need education and training. They will need to maintain the ship and to prepare for life on a new planet. Most people will need to be skilled in more than one area.

Emily’s essay, “Tides of Learning,” was selected from hundreds of essays that were submitted.

One judge said the following about her essay:

The story is very well-written and creative. I like the author’s idea of duplicating water molecules by combining a droplet with nutrient solution and oxygen. In fact, this could be a realistic technique in the future. In order to make water molecules (H2O), you need oxygen atoms (maybe from oxygen gas) and hydrogen atoms (maybe from a protein isolate like the author proposed) and also an efficient catalyst under proper conditions (like heat) to make them react. The essay shows deep understanding of engineering design ideas.

Contest winners will be notified in May.

For more information about the EngineerGirl Essay Contest, please visit: https://www.engineergirl.org/