The web holds space contests
ranging from essay competitions to sweepstakes prizes
for rocket rides. There are also various educational
related contests on space related topics. Student
essays and reports about a space topic are popular.
Note that the entry dates
for some of the contests listed here may have passed.
However, they are still listed just to give examples
of the types of space contests that have occurred.
The following contests and competitions
are open to students, though they may also be open to
adults and the general public. These competitions involve
some degree of technical or substantive accomplishment
rather than, say, a sweepstakes drawing.
Mars
Society The Mars Society has sponsored various contests
such as a song contest for a Mars Anthem in 1999.
Planetary
Society The Planetary Society has carried out numerous contests
and regularly announces new ones. Check their website
for their latest competitions. Here are a some past
ones:
The
Planetary Society's Red Rover Goes to Mars Project:
Student Astronaut Contest - students can
"participate with the Mars Exploration Rover
Mission team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
California during mission operations in early 2004.
You can apply to be part of this first-ever public
opportunity to participate in the inner workings of
a NASA mission to Mars!"
Centennial
Challenges - NASA program that awards monetary
prizes to motivate development of promising new technologies.
They are open to student teams as well as other organizations.
More info below.
ISS Node Name Contest:
Student classes (no individuals) in the K-12 range
can submit suggestions of a name for the new ISS module.
Contest closed December 1, 2006
FIRST
- organization founded by Dean Kamen to encourage
young people to follow engineering studies.
Ames
Annual Space Settlement Contest - NASA Ames
Research Center and Final Frontier sponsor this annual
student competition for the best research report on
creating Space
Settlements. See this site for contest rules,
examples of past winning entries, etc.
The
Student Aerospace Challenge competition will allow
European students to participate in the design of
an suborbital spacecraft along the lines of the air
launched SpaceShipOne system.
The Space Generation Advisory Council
(SGAC), through its sponsors, announces an international
technical paper competition to develop unique
and innovative concepts for how to deflect an
asteroid or comet that may impact the Earth
(referred to as mitigation). The competition
calls for individuals or teams to write and
submit a 3-10 page original technical paper
on their innovative concept for mitigation.
The 1st place award is a trip to present the
winning paper at this year's Space Generation
Congress (SGC) and International Astronautical
Congress (IAC) which take place in Glasgow,
Scotland from late September until early October
2008. The 2nd place award is a trip to present
at the SGC. Entries are due on 09 June 2008
and winners will be announced on 30 June 2008,
the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska Event,
the largest asteroid/comet impact event in Earth's
recent history.
SPAACSE
-- Scholarships
The Society of Performers, Artists, Athletes, and
Celebrities for Space Exploration (SPAACSE)
offers yearly scholarship awards to promising students
in the arts as well as other areas. Contests include a
space essay and a space art competitions.
ThinkQuest
ThinkQuest is an educational program that gives out
awards and scholoarships totaling over 1 million US
dollars each year to US students 12-19. Teams of 2-3
students, supervised by an adult coach, do a research
study on an approved research topic using the all the
resources of the Internet.
Their web site should present their research findings
in an engaging and informative manner. A panel of judges
review the entries and the top entries get awards. All
entries that pass the basic requirements will be put
on the official web listing.
Typically there are several entries based on space
topics.
University
of Toronto Space Design Contest (UTSDC)
The University of Toronto Space Design Contest (UTSDC)
is an annual contest for high school students. Teams
of up to five compete by developing a design for a particular
space related project (survey missions, space settlements,
etc), and presenting it in a medium of their choosing.
This contest is meant to be an application of creativity,
technical knowledge, presentation skill and teamwork.
Contestants submit their reports to UTSDC to review,
and will have the opportunity to present their designs
at an event hosted on the University of Toronto St.
George campus.
More information can be found at utsdc.sa.utoronto.ca.
An annual report will be made available.
X
PRIZE Foundation
The X PRIZE Foundation continued the momentum of the
X PRIZE rocket competition with development of several
new competitions in space and in other areas.
Astronaut Pete Conrad went to the Moon and later
helped to initiate the NewSpace approach to space
development by leading the DC-X
program and founding the successful Universal
Space Networks company.
8th
Continent Project at the Colorado
School of Mines sponsors this student competition
for the best space-related business plan. Previously
referred to as the Lunar Ventures competition,
the competition now covers general space-related
business concepts.
The idea is to use the cumulative bets of many
stock holders to predict the outcome of various
advanced technology projects. (In this case the
investment is with virtual PopSci Dollars.)
The list of Securities
includes quite a few NewSpace related projects.
For example, you can invest in (or short) the
propositions:
YourNameIntoSpace
- Teacher Contest - The Mars
Gravity Biosatellte project is using the YourNameIntoSpace.org
program to raise money by selling space on the
exterior surface for people and companies to place
messages, logos, etc. You can win free space for
your favorite teacher by telling them how "your
teacher inspired you or helped launch your career.
Entries may be submitted in any format: essay,
video clip, song, painting, etc. - creativity
is encouraged!" Deadline is May 15th, 2007.
New Forks, LLC is looking for the best space journalism,
period. We're giving a $3,000 prize for the best
unpublished piece of space journalism and a $3,000
prize for the best published piece of space journalism.
That's two categories with one prize of $3,000 for
each category. We're looking for feature stories
on the space sector, from the sexy to the serious.
The
Space Journalism Prize - In the Space
Review on Feb.21, 2005, Sam Dinkin announced
the creation of this prize, which will award $1000
for "the best article promoting human spacefaring
that appeared in a print or web publication during
2004".
Space
Journalism Prize Winner - Space Log - May 21.05
- at ISDC'05
Sam Dinkin presented Eli Kintisch the Space Journalism
Prize for his three-part series about the Ansari
X Prize and SpaceShipOne published in the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch in September 2004
N-Prize
A low budget (£9,999.99 (sterling), or about US$20K,
cash prize for the first private team to launch a payload
that weighs between 9.99 and 19.99 grams.
Sweepstakes Occasionally, there are sweepstakes style contests
related to space such as winning
trips into space on a suborbital rocketship. Here
are some currently open:
Galaxy32.com
"Find the 10 Planets, and win a Holiday in Space".
A treasure hunt game in which the grand prize is a
trip to space on a suborbital rocket ship. This game
is free to play with no registration.
NASA
Centennial Challenges Inspired by the success of the X
PRIZE, NASA has created the Centennial Challenges
program to sponsor competitions to motivate development
in various technologies that will support progress in
space. The programs are open to student teams, small
companies, volunteer organizations, hobbyists, etc.
Each prize competition, referred to as as a Challenge,
is done in partnership with an independent organization
that manages the program.
CanSat
Sponsored by the American Astronautical Society (AAS)
and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
(AIAA), the student teams win prize money by building
small "can" sized devices that will be "launched and
deployed from a rocket at an altitude of about 760 meters".
Points
are scored for control of the descent rate, landing
orientation, post-landing operations such as making
panoramic images, etc.
Note: HobbySpace
does not endorse or certify in any way the sites
listed here and is not responsible for any of the contents
on those sites. All the links and site descriptions were
simply obtained from publicly available information
on the web or in print and given here for your convenience.
Exercise all reasonable caution
when participating in sweepstates and other contests.
We are not responsible for any errors in the link descriptions.
