Art and Design students from Exeter College’s UAL Art and Design Diploma programme fought off stiff competition to win best concept at the Space Apps Challenge 'Hackathon' over Easter.

The competition, hosted by the Met Office in Exeter, attracted 9 teams from universities across the country. The only FE College team to take part, they chose a challenge set by NASA, to design and make fashionable and functional spacewear, for astronauts working on the International Space Station, in a weekend – competing with teams in London and across the world at the same time.

Joined by software developers and technologists, their product prototype featured internet connectivity linking the user to their family, friends and followers back on earth. A vision board sewn in to the sleeve would deliver weather updates and social networking alerts and a 'wearable hug' feature would allow family to send a message to the suit to physically squeeze the wearer when they are thinking of them.

The team were joined by experts in design and space materials from the University of Dundee and the Unlimited Space Agency and had a unique opportunity to hold a Skype consultation with British Astronaut Tim Peake, travelling to the International Space Station in 2015, who later tweeted them to say “fantastic job… can't wait to try it out”. In the live question and answer session, the students were able to quiz him about his preferred colours and style of the space suit.

The concept has been put forward for judging by the Kennedy Space Centre and NASA and will also be judged in a 'People’s Choice’ category voted for using social media.

For more information on the SpaceApps challenge visit:

http://bit.ly/unSpaceSuit

You can see the photos from the weekend here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/aburt/sets/72157643912809064/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/123353696@N08/sets/72157643989466813/