The Competitions emulate, as closely as possible, the experience of working as a member of an aerospace industry proposal team. Students work in groups called “companies”, each made up of up to 50, or even 60 students. The chaos of working in a large group is managed by assigning students to roles defined in an organization chart similar to those used in real companies.

To help students accomplish this challenging task, each Company is provided with managers from industry to serve as Company CEO, then participants receive technical and management training to prepare them for the Competition. A Customer organization defines requirements for developing a design for a specific scenario for each event. The Program Book describes “existing” space infrastructure. They must define an overall structure, define construction methods, determine quantities of electrical power and water, design computer and robotics systems, specify allocation of interior space, show examples of pleasant community design, and provide estimated costs and schedules for completion of the project. The Competition concludes with the Companies’ presentations of briefings describing their designs to a panel of judges.