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Young engineers rose to the challenge of designing an out of this world solution to a real-world problem.

Year 10 students at BMAT STEM Academy took part in a challenge day as part of their engineering course.

The aim of the day was for students to design a solution to a problem as a team, test the solution, make adjustments and try their ideas out again.

Students were put into industry teams of five and given a clear design brief to build a device which could transport a seismometer to Mars.

The capsule would be deployed from a rocket and would have to survive the journey to Mars with the seismometer being able to be deployed onto the surface of Mars.

Students had to model the scenario using an egg as the seismometer and a capsule made from string, paper, cotton wool and cellotape.

Paul Andrew, assistant head and science teacher, said: “After lots of hard work, testing and retesting, students attempted to demonstrate the worthiness of their spacecraft by dropping their construction from the top floor of BMAT STEM onto the bottom floor.

“Some superb designs were seen, with two teams at the end battling it out for the winning spot.

“A fantastic day was had by all students, with some novel and unique approaches to ensuring the seismometer made it to the bottom.”