A specialist jury selected ten students from the entrants from the three participating universities to go through to the final round of the Spacetex 2030 design competition.

The competition addresses the question of the particular kinds of functionality that everyday clothing, the so-called station wear, for astronauts on long-term missions has to offer. The clothing could be used, for example, on the planned mission to Mars in 2030.

“In addition to the design aspects, the students also had to take into account the functional and physiological requirements arising from spending months in weightlessness,” commented Dr Jan Beringer of the Hohenstein Institute, the chairman of the jury.

Design innovation and vision

The specialist jury was made up of experts from Schoeller Textil AG, Dr Klaus Jansen – the Managing Director of the research association Forschungskuratorium Textil and Dr Jan Beringer.

The list of assessment criteria for the members of the jury was equally diverse and challenging: as well as looking for an understanding of the requirements for the clothing, and ideas for how to meet them, they also paid special attention to design innovation and vision, and to how the presentation was put together technically. In addition, they assessed the performance characteristics and the design itself, and the application of the materials and processing techniques.

Finale

The finalists will be provided with high-tech materials by Schoeller Textil AG, a pioneer in the development of functional, sturdy, hard-wearing stretch fabrics, with which they will create their designs over the next few months.

The finalists include Lena Gedon, Claudia Korus, Rachel Kowalski, Theresa Leimgruber, Julia Quentin, Kristina Vohrer and Matthias Zepf from the Pforzheim University of Applied Science, as well as Jannina Krolitz, Linda Pfanzler and Jonas Stracke from the Hochschule Niederrhein, University of Applied Sciences.

In autumn 2015, one male and one female outfit will be chosen by the jury and the winners of prize money amounting to EUR 3000 will be announced.

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