BARROW Hills pupil Jedd Flander is out of this world after winning a national competition to design a spacecraft for NASA.

The year nine student scooped first prize with his ‘Vision for Life on Mars’ in this year’s Generation Beyond Challenge, organised by Lockheed Martin and Discovery Education.

Schools were invited to compete as part of a new STEM education programme (science, technology, engineering and maths) to inspire the next generation of astronauts.

Pupils were asked to design a habitation module for Orion, the NASA spacecraft that will take the first crew to Mars in the 2030s.

Jedd’s computer-generated module to enable astronauts to live and work safely on the red planet, is designed to be assembled in Earth’s orbit.

It included a zero-gravity rocket and special radiation room and was commended by the judges for being “very close to the real thing.”

Barrow Hills hosted a special assembly for Jedd and his parents, where Patrick Wood, director of international business development at Lockheed Martin Space, presented him with his prize of an iPad, a science magazine subscription, plus a £5,000 STEM grant for the school.

Mr Wood said: “Our children make up a generation that will change our universe forever. These young people are the generation that will walk on Mars, explore deep space and unlock mysteries that we can’t yet imagine.

“And that’s why it’s so important to us to help schools to encourage children to consider careers in STEM.

“I was so impressed by the creativity these pupils showed and the complexity of their designs and I’m excited about what this generation will bring to future space missions.”

Jedd added: “I have always been fascinated by space travel, so I was enthusiastic from the start. ”