PURPOSE:

 

The AIAA SATC Best Paper Award honors outstanding technical, educational and/or creative achievements exemplifying the quality of design and engineering. The fundamental goal of the SATC Awards sector is to recognize exceptional achievements and to promote development and (young) talents in the field of Space Architecture. The SATC aims to recognise the spatial, architectural sensibility in human environments designed for use in space and similarly extreme environments.

The awards are presented annually by the AIAA Space Architecture Technical Committee and awarded annually at AIM conferences.

CRITERIA & ELIGIBILITY:

 

The AIAA SATC Best Paper Award acknowledges outstanding publications in the field of space architecture, both in the Professional and Student categories. In particular:

• Conference Papers, journal contributions and books that contribute significantly to the profession.

• Academic, as well as commercial contributions.

• Contributions in the fields of space architecture, human factors and space engineering.

• Student Papers (e.g., diploma and other academic theses), if the majority of the work has been contributed by the student(s).

SELECTION AND EVALUATION PROCESS:

 

• Submission deadline: December 31st, every year

• Submitted papers need a nominator and are submitted to the AIAA SATC Best Paper Award subcommittee.

• The AIAA SATC Best Paper Award subcommittee determines the group of evaluators. All papers are reviewed and evaluated by members of the Space Architecture Technical Committee in a blind review.

• Announcement of Awardees: March, the following year.

EVALUATION CRITERIA:

• Originality
• Relevance of the topic
• Thoroughness, extent of research and quality of references
• Analysis and conclusions
• Graphic quality
• Organization of ideas and clarity
• Relevance in relation to space habitation
• Relevance in relation to architectural practice

In addition, the following criteria apply to Professional papers in particular

• Permanence and value in archive
• Rigor: Thoroughness, robustness of theory or implementability and practicality of ideas
• Education and dissemination value

AWARDEES:

2023 The AIAA SATC Best Paper – Professional Award:

Akin, David L. (2023 July).  Developing an Integrated Logistics Infrastructure for Lunar Surface Habitats (ICES-2023-454).  52nd International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES), Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 16-20 July 2023. Presented at ICES 2023.

2023 The AIAA SATC Best Paper – Student Award:

Vaccino, Luca; Pritchard, Kenneth A.; Azimi, Mohsen; Dyke, Shirley J.; Lund, Alana K. (2023 July).  Simulation-Based Assessment of Hazardous States in a Deep Space Habitat (ICES-2023-449).  52nd International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES), Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 16-20 July 2023. Presented at ICES 2023.

2022 The AIAA SATC Best Paper – Professional Award:

Bruce A. Mackenzie, Bart Leahy, Georgi Petrov, Kolemann Lutz, Stuart Feldman for their paper “Mars Manufacturing Settlement” (ICES-2021-351). Presented at ICES 2022

2022 The AIAA SATC Best Paper – Student Award:

Rudolf Walther Erdem Neumerkel, Miruna Vecerdi and Sandra Hauplik-Meusburger for their paper “Design of an Autonomously Deployable Mars Habitat” (ICES-2021-398) presented at ICES 2022.

2021 The AIAA SATC Best Paper- Professional Award:

Daniel Inocente, Colin Koop, and Georgi Petrov, Piero Messina and Isabelle Duvaux-Bechon, Advenit Makaya, David Binns, David Brandao, and Robin Biesbroek for their paper “Future Space Architecture: Cross-Functional Multidisciplinary Design and Engineering” presented at ASCEND 2022.

2021 The AIAA SATC Best Paper – Student Award:

Tim Elrick for his paper ,”Building with Celestial Bodies” presented at ICES-2020.

2020 The AIAA SATC Best Paper- Professional Award:

Ariel Ekblaw, Anastasia Prosina, Dava Newman, and Joseph Paradiso for their paper “Space Habitat Reconfigurability: TESSERAE platform for self-aware assembly.” (IAC-19.E5.1A.12×52608) presented at IAC 2019.

 

2020 The AIAA SATC Best Paper – Student Award:

Heather Hava, Larissa Zhou, Elizabeth M. Lombardi, Kaixin Cui, Heeyeon Joung, Hayley Kinlaw, and Sarah Aguasvivas Manzano for their paper “SIRONA: Sustainable Integration of Regenerative Outer-space Nature and Agriculture” ( ICES-2019-302) presented at ICES-2019.

2019 The AIAA SATC Best Paper- Professional Award:

Brandon W. Maryatt, Michael J. Van Wie, Toni A. Clark for their paper “Recommendations for Next Generation Crew Quarters”, ICES-2018-106 presented at ICES 2018.

2019 The AIAA SATC Best Paper – Student Award:

Dale Martin, Melissa Adams, Spencer Aman, Derek Bierly, Caleb Fricke, Simon Hochmuth, Nicholas Levitsky, Skylar Trythall and David L. Akin for their paper “MARSH: Multi-mission Artificial-gravity Reusable Space Habitat” (AIAA 2018-5100) presented at AIAA SPACE 2018.

2018 The AIAA SATC Best Paper- Professional Award:

Barbara Imhof, Diego Urbana, Peter Weiss, and Matthias Sperl for their paper “Advancing Solar Sintering for Building a Base on the Moon” (IAC-17-C2.9.13) presented at IAC 2017.

2018 The AIAA SATC Best Paper – Student Award:

Amy Marandola, Glynn Comeau, Noah Smith, Michael Gordon, Reshef Weiss, Steven A. Elisha, Benjamin Zusack, Kevin Hilker, Pablo L. LeCaptain, Sarag J. Podesta, and Sarag J. Saikia for their paper “Exploration Systems Requirements to Establish a Sustainable Human Presence on Mars” presented at AIAA Space 2017.

2017 The AIAA SATC Best Paper- Professional Award:

No Awardee

2017 The AIAA SATC Best Paper- Student Award:

Suzana Bianco and Shunsuke Miyazaki for their paper “ACOSS (Advanced Commercial international Space Station), Commercially Habitable LEO/Mars Habitable Module”, presented at the 2017 RASC-AL Student Design Competition.

2016 The AIAA SATC Best Paper- Professional Award:

Michael Morris, Christina Ciardullo, Kelsey Lents, Melodie Yashar, of SEArch, and Jeffrey Montes, Ostap Rudakevych, Masa Sono, and Yuki Sono, of Jet Portal & Clouds Architecture Office for their paper, “Mars Ice House: Using the Physics of Phase Change in 3D Printing a Habitat with H2O,” (ICES-2016-222). Presented at the 46th International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES), Vienna, Austria, 10-14 July 2016.

2016 The AIAA SATC Best Paper- Student Award:

Marlies Arnhof for her paper, “Design of a Human Settlement on Mars Using In-Situ Resources,” (ICES-2016-151). Presented at the 46th International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES), Vienna, Austria, 10-14 July 2016.

2015 The AIAA SATC Best Paper Award:

Marc Cohen and Sandra Haeuplik-Meusburger for their paper “What Do We Give Up and Leave Behind?” (ICES-2015-056). Presented at the 45th International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES), Bellevue, Washington, USA, 12-16 July 2015.

2014 The AIAA SATC Best Paper Award:

David Akin, Katherine McBryan, Nicholas Liomparis, Micholas D’Amore and Christopher Carlsen, for their paper “Habitat Design & Assessment at Varying Gravity Levels” (ICES-2014-264), presented at ICES 2014.

2013 The AIAA SATC Best Paper Award:

No Awardee

2012 The AIAA SATC Best Paper Award:

Marc M. Cohen for his paper “Mockups 101: Code and Standard Research for Space Habitat Analogues” (AIAA 2012-5153).

2011 The AIAA SATC Best Paper Award:

Michael T. Flynn, Lance Delzeit, Sherwin Gormly, Mona Hammoudeh, Hali Shaw, Alex Polonsky, Kevin Howard, A. Scott Howe, Monica Soler and Joe Chambliss for their paper “Habitat Water Wall for Water, Solids, and Atmosphere Recycle and Reuse” (AIAA 2011-5018).