The LSA team with principal Meena Kak.

The next time your girlfriend asks for the moon, get in touch with Grumbo Aerospace Company — a group of students from Lakshmipat Singhania Academy (LSA) who won the 20th edition of the Annual International Space Settlement Design at Nasa’s Johnson Space Center in Houston with their blueprint for a mini lunar colony.

Alaskol, the settlement designed by the LSA team, has more on offer — moving sofas to take you from one place to another, a special solution to keep away tan and ballet classes to kill boredom and keep you fit.

Grumbo Aerospace proposed to build an underground residential and industrial township. “If we build the settlement underground, it will be protected from lunar dust and thermal power,” explained Amitabh Agrawal, one of the students.

The LSA students worked with boys and girls from Edgewater High School, Florida, Princess Margaret Secondary School, Canada, and The Cardiff Sixth Form College, UK, to devise innovative solutions.

The team impressed with its idea for a cooling system. “It is obvious that a lot of heat will be generated by computers and other machines, so a cooling system is a must. More so because the moon does not have an atmosphere like the earth,” said Pronil Roy.

Each team was given a budget of 250 billion dollars, but Grumbo Aerospace managed to keep expenses down to 196 billion dollars, becoming the only team not to cross the 200-mark. “Since importing nitrogen from Earth would be expensive, we decided to dispel with it as human beings do not need it. We decided to maintain 98 per cent oxygen and extract oxygen and hydrogen to make water,” Pronil said.

Alaskol offers two modes of transport — cycle and moving sofas — and entertainment in the form of ballet dance and space marathon. “It is easy to leap on the moon, so we picked ballet,” said Darshika Agarwal, Class XII.

The lunar settlement also boasts an airport to boost its tourism potential. “What can be better than gifting your bride the moon? That would attract many,” chipped in Manshi Sanghai.

And to make sure that a tan doesn’t spoil your look at the moon wedding or holiday, there are silicon buckystructures, a fictitious material.

Principal Meena Kak is happy that the students’ hard work has paid off. “They gave up on holidays to work and rehearse at school. There were days when the entire team stayed back in school for two days, that is 43 hours (the time given by Nasa to prepare the final project,” she said.