A trio of lucky students from North Norfolk are set to embark on the trip of a lifetime after winning through to the finals of an international space competition.

The three year 12 A-level physics students, from Sheringham High School, were part of the winning group which triumphed in the UK Space Design Competition national finals, which were held over the weekend of March 5-6 at Imperial College in London.

Chris Leach, 16, Sam May, 16, and George Phillips, 17, won through with their group, 'Grumbo Aerospace' after coming up with their own ideas and designs for a space station which they could use to travel between Earth and Mars, as part of which they had to prepare a 40 minute proposal to present to the judges, made up of space industry professionals.

The students will now go on to attend the international finals competition at NASA's Johnson Space Centre, Houston, in July, where they will have the challenge of designing a habitat system for people to actually survive on Mars.

If they win through there, they will be awarded an internship with NASA to take-up before they go to university.

David Berry, physics teacher at the school, said: 'The students literally worked all night to come up with the proposals. They have done really well, the exercise was a brilliant team-building exercise.'