Get to the bottom of it
A design can’t be hand-waved. From literature research to scientific grounding — food, life support, low gravity — we respect facts and data over the loudest voice.
Mission
Mission
To let students who love engineering and space take a space city — a whole systems proposal — from an idea to a result that can be verified and defended.
We care about space, but more about how it gets built. An idea must be reworked through structure, habitat, operations and business, and survive a 24-hour sprint and an all-English defense, before it is truly understood. Butian exists to give students a place to do engineering for real: real briefs, people to ask, and somewhere to let experience accumulate.
Vision
Vision
We want Butian to be a place that accumulates over time — where projects and experience pass from one cohort to the next, where documents, retrospectives and proposals reach those who come after, and where everyone who took part seriously leaves with a real engineering experience.
We don’t chase momentary noise; we value methods that can be reproduced and records that can be continued.
Culture
Culture
Design under real constraints
A space city must answer structure, habitat, operations and business at once. We’re used to forcing an idea into a verifiable proposal within fixed limits and tight time.
Cover for each other
No one is good at everything. Structure, habitat, operations and infrastructure each have their experts — and we often team up on the spot with students from other schools. A proposal takes all of us.
Structure
Structure
The club runs under the Qiushi Innovation Academy, organized by competition teams and collaborating along the departments of a virtual aerospace company.
Home platform
Butian belongs to the Qiushi Innovation Academy at Hangzhou No.2 High School. Launched in 2017 and grown from the Innovation Lab, the academy is called the school’s “college of engineering for students”.
Department structure
For space settlement design competitions we organize as a virtual aerospace company, collaborating across five departments: management, structure, habitat, operations and infrastructure.
Competition teams
Teams are formed per competition — for example Team Yuheng and Team Tianquan at the 2024 GFSSM China round, both of which advanced to the national final.
TODO：The club’s founding date, founding and past presidents, and the full roster of current advisors await confirmation. The 2024 GFSSM teams were advised by Zhu Maoqi and Shao Wenxin.
Lineage
Lineage
Public records sketch a fairly clear thread. The 2016–2017 space settlement results form Butian’s traceable aerospace tradition; the club appearing by the name “Butian” in public reporting becomes clear from 2023 onward.
2016 · Where the tradition begins
The Hangzhou No.2 High School team made its ISSDC debut, designing a 250-person mining base inside a Mercury lava tube in 25 hours and winning the China finals.
2017 · Qiushi Innovation Academy
The school established the Qiushi Innovation Academy, bringing the Innovation Lab and top-tier competitions into a systematic platform — fertile ground for innovation clubs.
2023 · Toward outreach
Butian joined the IF Business Club and the school volunteer team in a paired exchange in Pan’an, bringing space science to children at a rural primary school.
2024 · GFSSM China runner-up
Teams Yuheng and Tianquan designed a Venus-orbit space city, advanced to the national final, took national runner-up with their companies, and earned several team and individual honors.
Who Fits
Who Fits
We set no hard bar and value attitude over starting point. If you agree with most of the below, this is probably the place for you:
- A lasting curiosity about engineering or space, and the patience to see something through.
- Not afraid to dig up references and read beyond the textbook, then bring it back to the design.
- Willing to document and visualize the process and result, and present it clearly — in Chinese and even English.
- Able to work with students from other directions — even other schools — and take responsibility for the team and the proposal.