NASA Ames Space Settlement Contest 2019

NASA Ames Space Settlement Contest 2019 now is over!

The NASA Ames Space Settlement Contest 2019, organised by NASA Ames Research Center, San Jose State University, and the National Space Society (NSS), it’s opened for entries inviting students around the world seeking for designs, original research, essays, stories, models, artwork or any other orbital space settlement related materials.

About Competition

The NASA Ames Research Center, San Jose State University, and the National Space Society (NSS) invite all students around the world up to 12th grade to participate in its NASA Ames Space Settlement Contest 2019 seeking for designs, original research, essays, stories, models, artwork or any other orbital space settlement related materials.

This is a tremendous opportunity to present your work, meet some of the most important people in space development as well as your fellow contestants, and have a great time.

Contest categories are:

• 6th grade and younger: individual, small group, large group,
• 7th grade: individual, small group, large group,
• 8th grade: individual, small group, large group,
• 9th grade: individual, small group, large group,
• 10th grade: individual, small group, large group,
• 11th grade: individual, small group, large group,
• 12th grade: individual, small group, large group.
Additional categories based on artistic and literary merit are also included in the contest.

Guidelines:

"Space settlements are permanent communities in orbit, as opposed to living on the Moon or other planets. The work of Princeton physicist Dr. O’Neill and others have shown that such colonies are technically feasible, although expensive. Settlers of this high frontier are expected to live inside large air-tight rotating structures holding hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people along with the animals, plants, and single celled organisms vital to comfort and survival. There are many advantages to living in orbit: zero-g recreation, environmental independence, plentiful solar energy, and terrific views to name a few. There is plenty of room for everyone who wants to go; the materials from a single asteroid can build space colonies with living space equal to about 500 times the surface area of the Earth.

Why should settlements be in orbit? Mars and our Moon have a surface gravity far below Earth normal. Children raised in low-g will not develop bones and muscles strong enough to visit Earth comfortably. In contrast, orbital colonies can be rotated to provide Earth normal pseudo-gravity in the main living areas."

Submission requirements:

• The 2019 contest will be conducted electronically. No more paper entries.

• Submissions must relate to free space settlements. Settlements may not be on a planet or moon, although support activities such as mining may be. Settlements must be permanent homes, relatively self-sufficient homes, not temporary work camps. Submissions may focus on one or a few aspects of space settlement and supporting systems, including mines, activities leading up to settlement (such as space hotels), economic and social issues, etc.

• Designs, original research, essays, stories, models, artwork or any other orbital space settlement related materials may be submitted.

• Submissions should not be longer than 50 pages unless it is essential to explain the work. If your entry is longer than 5-10 pages, consider including a one page executive summary on the best features of your entry. Be sure to include original ideas, major focus, and any parts particularly well done in the executive summary. This will help the judges find the best parts of your entry.

• The submission must be the student’s own work. Plagiarism is forbidden. No part of an entry may copied with one exception: You may quote short passages, but only if the material is surrounded in double quotes (") and the source indicated. Quoted materials should rarely be more than a few lines, and never longer than a few paragraphs. Quoting long passages is forbidden. Entries caught plagiarizing, even one part of a large entry, will be disqualified and disposed of. You may use images from the web, but please credit the source.

• Instructors, mentors or parents may assist the student by presenting relevant resources, discussing core concepts and suggesting minor edits, but the work itself must be entirely student produced.

Teachers can make this contest part of their lesson plan. While designing a space colony, students will have a chance to study physics, mathematics, space science, environmental science, and many other disciplines. Organizer would like students outside the science classes to participate as well.

Students can design entire colonies or focus on one aspect of orbital living. For example, consider a cross curriculum project where science classes design the basic structure and support systems, art students create pictures of the interior and exterior, English students write related short stories, social studies students develop government and social systems, Industrial Technology builds a scale model, and the football team proposes low-g sports.

Individuals, small teams of two to five, and large teams of six to twelve will be judged separately.

The National Space Society (NSS) invites all 2019 contest participants to attend the NSS 38th annual International Space Development Conference (ISDC) in Arlington, VA, 6-9 June 2019. The highest ranking winners attending will be invited to give oral presentations as time is available. To the extent space is available, all contestants who attend will be invited to display a poster of their work.

There is no entry fees to participate!

Eligibility

The NASA Ames Space Settlement Contest 2019 is for all students at up to 12th grade from anywhere in the world.