NASA Space Settlement Contest.
This annual contest, co-sponsored by NASA Ames and the National Space Society (NSS) is for 6-12th graders (11-18 years old) from anywhere in the world. Individuals, small teams of two to six, and large teams of seven or more (often whole classrooms with teacher leadership) may enter. Grades 6-8, 9-10 and 11-12 are judged separately, except for the grand prize. Students develop space settlement designs and related materials. These are sent to NASA Ames for judgement. Submissions must be received by March 15. Check out the results of the 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 contests.
If you are planning to attend ISDC 2011, please see the ISDC Space Settlement Students Web Site.
IMPORTANT: there were changes for the 2011 contest:
- The deadline changed. Entries will be due on March 15 to make it easier for contestants to attend ISDC.
- The entry form has changed and you must send two copies of the form, one attached to your project and the other loose. If possible, three-hole punch the loose one. Note: the three hole punch standard in India is different from the US, so Indian contestants should not three hole punch their entry forms.
- There are changes to the NSS sponsored awards (see below).
Teachers are encouraged to use this contest as part of their curriculum. See the
space settlement teacher's page and the
Space Settlement page
Contest prizes and certificates:
Here are some of the grand prize entries from previous years:
Rules
- Submissions must relate to orbital settlements. Settlements may not be on a planet or moon. Settlements must be permanent, relatively self-sufficient homes, not temporary work camps.
- Designs, original research, essays, stories, models, artwork or any other orbital space settlement related materials may be submitted.
- Submissions must be made in hard copy. No electronic submissions are accepted under any circumstances. This includes Power Point presentations, discs, CD's, DVD, videos or anything but paper. NASA does not return contestant submissions. However, you may create an electronic project, such as a video or web site, and send us a hard copy description of the project. The description should include images and text to describe the project in sufficient detail for judgement. If your electronic project is web accessible, you may include the URL. It will not be used for judging, but NASA may, at its discretion, link to your project from the contest results page.
- Two copies of the entry form with the appropriate information must be included with the submission; one attached to the submission and one loose. If possible, three-hole punch the loose one. Be sure to fill out all fields and write legibly.
- The submission must be the student's own work. Plagiarism is forbidden. You may quote short passages, but material copied from a source must be surrounded in double quotes (") and the source indicated. For example: "This material copied from somewhere," My Favorite Space Book. Copied materials should rarely be more than a few lines, and never longer than a few paragraphs. Quoting long passages is forbidden. Entries caught plagiarizing will be rejected and disposed of. Every year 10-15 entries are caught copying materials from the web. They are eliminated from the competition.. This is paricularly sad for teams when one team member plagiarizes and the others are ethical. For teams, we recommend checked each other for plagiarism. Use Google (or other search engine) to surround 6-8 suspect words with double quotes, for example "text I think might be plagiarised by someone." If there is a perfect match, then look at the source material to make sure there wasn't an accidental match.
- Instructors, mentors or parents may assist the student in presenting relevant resources, discussing core concepts and editing, but the work itself, must be entirely student driven.
- Always include a bibliography.
- Submissions are not returned. Keep a copy for yourself.
Resources and Tips
- If your entry is longer that 10-20 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.
- Avoid including technical material not directly related to your space settlement. This is a space settlement contest and marginally related material will make it difficult for the judges. If they can't find your space settlement elements easily you won't score well.
- Refer to the NASA Ames Space Settlement Page
- Refer to the NSS Space Settlement Library
- Use the space colony designer's corner.
- Use the space settlement teacher's page.
- Refer to the NSS Library.
- Generic Earth Orbiting Space Settlement Requirements by Anita Gale.
- Models are hard to handle and expensive to ship. Consider sending pictures of your model. If you must send the whole model, make it strong. Fragile models are frequently demolished during shipping or transport. Submissions are not returned. NASA is not responsible for the loss or damage to any submission.
- Do your best to get the science right.
- Make your design as quantitative as possible.
- Include a bibliography. We want to know where you got your ideas and materials.
- Be creative. Surprise the judges. Put something of your own personality into your work.
- Consider designing a colony that you would really like to live in.
- Consider alternate possibilities and clearly describe why you made the choices you did.
- Present your material clearly and neatly.
- When you discuss someone else's ideas or work, even if you don't copy their wording, reference it. We recommend a reference format along the lines of "[author year]." For example, you might write:
Small children will be required not to be allowed in the center of the cylinder since radiation levels are minimized near the hull [Horia 2005].
Then in the References section at the end of your paper put:
[Horia 2005] Horia Mihail Teodorescu and Al Globus, "Radiation Passive Shield Analysis and Design for Space Applications, "SAE 2005 Transactions Journal of Aerospace.
- Use the entry form, if we don't know who you are we won't be able to send you your prizes and certificates. Be sure to attach a copy of the entry form to each part of your submission. For example, if you have a report and artwork, attach an entry form to each so that if they get separated during handling, we will be able to put them back together.
- Submissions must be received by March 15. All decisions by the judges are final.
- Have fun.
Submission
Send a hard copy of your entry and two hard copies of a filled out entry form (one attached to your entry and the other separate) to:
WARNING: do not send your entry by registered mail. This delays delivery and makes it more likely your entry will be lost. You may use a service that requires a signature on the receiving end.
NASA Ames Research Center
Al Globus/Mail Stop 262-4
Bldg. 262, Rm. 277
P.O. Box 1
Moffett Field, CA 94035-0001
by March 15, 2011.
NOTE: we do not send verification that entries have been received. Please don't ask for one.
Teachers using the contest in their class should submit all projects together. Note: electronic submission is not allowed, only hard copy.
Discussion
Space colonies 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 colonies 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.
We hope teachers will 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. We would like students outside the science classes to participate as well. Thus, contest submissions may include designs, essays, stories, models, and artwork. Students can design entire colonies or focus on one aspect of orbital living. A class or school may submit a joint project where small teams tackle different areas in a coordinated fashion. 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.
Schools and teachers may consider ongoing multi-year projects; each year's students add detail to a space colony design that becomes part of the school or class portfolio. In this case, teachers assign students to different parts of the design, gradually building a more and more complete and practical space colony concept. Each year the project can be submitted to the contest.
Other Space Settlement Contests
Continuing Education
Colleges and Universities offering space science astronautics programs.
NASA Academy A National educational, training, and research resource for college undergraduate and graduate students, dedicated to promoting current and future opportunities for innovation and leadership in aerospace-related careers.
The space settlement home page.
Additional Space Settlement sites include:
We would like to thank the
NASA Ames Contractor Council and the
San Jose State University Research Foundation for their generous and critical support.
Author: Al Globus
| Curator: Al Globus |
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| NASA Responsible Official: Dr. Ruth Globus |
Last Updated: April 12, 2011 |
| If you find any errors on this page contact Al Globus. |
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