Category Archives: Space Systems

Contests and Games, Mars, Space Systems

Mars Society & Inspiration Mars announce student design contest with $21,000 in prizes

An announcement from the Mars Society and  Inspiration Mars:

Mars Society Launches International Student Design Competition
Students to propose design concepts for Inspiration Mars mission

(BOULDER, Colo.) – Today during the 16th Annual International Mars Society Convention, the Mars Society announced the launch of an international engineering competition for student teams to propose design concepts for the architecture of the Inspiration Mars mission.  The contest is open to university engineering student teams from anywhere in the world.

Inspiration Mars Executive Director Dennis Tito and Program Manager Taber MacCallum were present for the announcement. “Inspiration Mars is looking for the most creative ideas from engineers all over the world,” said Tito. “Furthermore, we want to engage the explorers of tomorrow with a real and exciting mission, and demonstrate what a powerful force space exploration can be in inspiring young people to develop their talent. This contest will accomplish both of those objectives.”

The requirement is to design a two-person Mars flyby mission for 2018 as cheaply, safely and simply as possible. All other design variables are open.

Alumni, professors and other university staff may participate as well, but the teams must be predominantly composed of and led by students. All competition presentations must be completed exclusively by students. Teams will be required to submit their design reports in writing by March 15, 2014. From there, a down-select will occur with the top 10 finalist teams invited to present and defend their designs before a panel of six judges chosen (two each) by the Mars Society, Inspiration Mars and NASA. The presentations will take place during a public event at NASA Ames Research Center in April 2014.

Designs will be evaluated using a scoring system, allocating a maximum of 30 points for cost, 30 points for technical quality of the design, 20 points for operational simplicity and 20 points for schedule with a maximum total of 100 points. The first place team will receive a prize of $10,000, an all-expenses paid trip to the 2014 International Mars Society Convention and a trophy to be presented by Dennis Tito at that event. Prizes of $5,000, $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000 will also be awarded for second through fifth place.

All designs submitted will be published, and Inspiration Mars will be given non-exclusive rights to make use of any ideas contained therein.

Commenting on the contest, Mars Society President Dr. Robert Zubrin said, “The Mars Society is delighted to lead this effort. This contest will provide an opportunity for legions of young engineers to directly contribute their talent to this breakthrough project to open the space frontier.”

Further information about the Mars Society may be found at www.marssociety.org.

Further information about Inspiration Mars may be found at http://www.inspirationmars.org.

Events, Science and Technology, Space Systems

Starship Congress webcast and updates

The Icarus Interstellar  Starship Congress event is underway in Dallas. Here is the Schedule (in Central Time).

Twitter posts about the event and the presentations can be found at:

A webcast is available:

Future space, Space Settlement, Space Systems

Icarus Interstellar Starship Congress, Dallas, TX, Aug. 15-18

The Icarus Interstellar is hosting the Starship Congress in Dallas, Texas this Thursday through Sunday: Starship Congress: Competing Our Way to the Stars : Discovery News.

The gathering is described as follows:

The Icarus Interstellar Starship Congress to be held in Dallas, Texas, August 15-18 at the Hilton Anatole.

The Icarus Interstellar Starship Congress aims to bring together the interstellar community to foster discussion and generate tangible action. Our ambition is to move humanity toward becoming an interstellar civilization, with a broad campaign of exploration and migration to begin by the year 2100.

For 2013, the Icarus Interstellar Starship Congress is a four-day event. The first three days are dedicated to interstellar accomplishments in specific timescales: Interstellar Now (Next 20 Years), Interstellar This Lifetime (20-50 Years), and Interstellar Future (50 Years+). These are the near-term, medium-term and long-term focuses necessary for the realization of our ambition. The fourth day will be a wrap-up of the Starship Congress with a chance to network and plan for the future.

Presenters are a combination of scientists, physicists, engineers, researchers, and representatives from international space programs and present-day commercial space operators, as well as popular and well-known interstellar speakers and space journalists. Special note: Day 3 presenters include Science Fiction celebrities, authors and creators. The fourth day is for discussion of future plans and a summary of the congress.

The conference Program looks packed. Here’s a promotional video:

Space Arts, Space Systems

Satellite going to space with pop-art whimsy

The Scottish based company Clyde Space will be launching their first Cubesat in the near future. To highlight this milestone, they asked LA based artists Jon Gibson and Amanda White to create some artwork decoration. They took up the challenge and decided to engraved the side of the spacecraft so that it looks like “an oversized electrical charging device” : World’s first pop-art satellite headed to space – AP/Yahoo!.

“If someone is going to invade our planet, presumably they’re going to come in some sort of electronic, electricity-powered ship,” Gibson notes whimsically. “Maybe this will make them stop for a moment and say, ‘These guys are nice. We’re not going to destroy their planet.'”

This short video shows off the satellite side panel created by Gibson/White:

This is definitely not the first artwork to go into space, however. See the HobbySpace Art in Space section for several examples of art sent to space and created in space.