Aerospace Education Competitions (AEC) is the overarching organization responsible for setting strategic direction for Space Settlement Design Competition® (SSDC) activities globally.
Our annual activities include:
Creation, modification, and ownership of the intellectual property (IP) used in all SSDC events globally;
Conduct of the annual International Space Settlement Design Competition® (ISSDC), a global Design Competition culminating in the annual ISSDC Finals
Managing and supporting the Qualifying Competition, and Regional Semi-Finals, of the ISSDC, for North America
Supporting our regional partners in the conduct of their regional SSDC events.
Assisting partners and other entities in offering Design Competition experiences directly to high schools and school districts
Activities that are delegated to specific regional partners include:
Managing and running regional ISSDC Regional Semi Finals, within the canon and storyline of the global ISSDC competition. Winners of these events earn a position at the annual ISSDC Finals;
Use our IP under license to run their own standalone Design Competition events, outside of, yet concurrent to, the ISSDC.
AEC is a non-profit registered in the state of Texas, and is a 501(c)3 non-profit registered with the IRS in the United States.
Anita Gale is a retired Boeing engineer, with 40 years of experience as a Project Engineer
and Systems Engineer on the Space Shuttle and Commercial Crew programs. Her
responsibilities primarily involved cargo integration, process improvements, and working
on proposal teams for new projects and space vehicles.
In 1984, Anita co-founded Space Settlement Design Competitions, which involve high
school students world-wide in emulating the experience of working on engineering
proposal teams. The background information she prepares for each Competition includes
"future history" of human activities in space, including economic justification for future
habitation throughout the inner solar system into the 2090s.
Anita is a member and past Chair of the American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics (AIAA) Space Colonization Technical Committee. She is an Executive
Committee member of the National Space Society (NSS), which advocates for future
human settlement of space. She has authored technical papers and made presentations on
future space infrastructure, and chairs tracks of sessions on space settlements for
international conferences.
Mr. John (Jack) Gafford is currently a senior systems engineer living in Houston Texas working for a major aerospace company contracted to design, build and operate manned spaceflight platforms for NASA. Mr. Gafford has spent over 34 years involved with the Space Shuttle, International Space Station, Constellation, and Commercial Crew Transportation Programs. Mr. Gafford has progressed his career through aerodynamic analysis, flight trajectory design, system verification, logistics support equipment development projects and system engineering and integration disciplines. Mr. Gafford also enjoys volunteering for high school design competitions, amateur radio, automobile restorations, woodworking and miscellaneous general handyman projects.
Engineer. Educator. Entrepreneur. Explorer. Ever-excited for all things geeky.
Education constitutes teaching diverse groups of learners, how to learn rather than sharing concepts. This forms the gist of my career path and the driving force behind everything I do. An engineer by education, I have worked with educators and didactic experts throughout the globe, since the beginning of my career almost 15 years ago, and created cutting-edge hands-on STEM programs for students of all ages and educators with varying interests.
I serve as the CEO of Atlantis Educational Services, headquartered at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. To offer advanced STEM programs to students from all over the world in the field of Aerospace Technologies, AES was established in 2012. As a team of passionate educators, techies and Space nerds, we create education disruption modules.
I am a certified space nerd given my association with International Space Settlement Design Competition since the year 2001; first as a participant and winner, and then as a volunteer, core member of Foundation Society and a judge. I have served as the director of Asian Regional Space Settlement Design Competition for over 15 years. The competition has played a key role in formation of my career and remained a constant inspiration to innovate. When not in my fabrication lab at the Kennedy Space Center, I am either planning a new travel-adventure or already on one. My Indian company, Atlantis Erudition & Travels, pioneered custom educational-travel experiences for South-Asian students and teachers, across the globe. The company provides unique STEM Education experiences to schools across the region. I am a voracious reader, photographer, design devotee and Hollywood buff.
A mechanical engineer by discipline, David have strong interpersonal skills and a broad range of experience across multiple industries and countries. Successes over his career include successful multi-year execution of a project portfolio worth over $15M annually, 25% personnel performance increases through managerial & leadership improvements, driving double-digit percentage improvements in quarterly safety metrics, and founding his own Augmented Reality startup. He excels when given engaging and passionate work, and regularly deliver above and beyond his experience, existing skill set, and job requirements.