A team of Grade 12 students from Central Peel Secondary School in Brampton, Canada, has won the grand prize in the 2026 Gerard K. O'Neill Space Settlement Contest, marking the first time a Canadian team has claimed the top honor in the competition's history. The team, which includes several students of Indian origin, triumphed over more than 23,000 students from 31 countries with their project 'Saoirse,' a proposed self-sustaining space settlement for 10,000 residents located at the Mars-Sun L2 Lagrange point.

Organized by the U.S.-based National Space Society (NSS), the annual contest challenges students to design realistic human habitats in space, requiring detailed proposals covering engineering, life support, governance, and sustainability. The competition, originally launched in 1994 as the NASA Ames Space Settlement Contest, receives submissions that often resemble professional aerospace research, with many entries exceeding 100 pages.

The 'Saoirse' project features rotating habitats to simulate gravity, closed-loop agricultural systems, renewable energy infrastructure, and radiation shielding, integrating principles from physics, engineering, and social sciences. The team's design emphasizes long-term viability and autonomy, positioning the settlement in a gravitationally stable zone that minimizes fuel consumption for station-keeping.

The winners will receive a shared $5,000 scholarship and are scheduled to present their project at the upcoming International Space Development Conference, where past winning concepts have drawn interest from aerospace professionals and researchers.

The Canadian Space Agency and Ontario education officials have acknowledged the achievement, and Central Peel Secondary School plans to showcase the project in its STEM curriculum; the contest organizers confirmed the next edition will open for submissions in September 2026.