Submissions are invited for the NSS Gerard K. O’Neill Space Settlement Contest. The deadline for submission is February 15, 2025.
About the Contest
This contest has been held annually since 1994, and it is a direct descendant of Professor O’Neill’s original thought experiment, but instead of college freshman the contest is designed for students up to 12th grade. Students are not given any requirements other than the project must focus on a free space settlement concept. Settlements may not be on a planet or moon, although support activities such as mining may be. Settlements must be permanent 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.
Contest Categories
Contest categories are-
- 7th grade and younger: individual, small group (2-5 students), large group (6-12 students),
- 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.
Prizes
- The best submission, regardless of category, wins the grand prize. The submission will be hosted on the contest web site. Finally, the highest ranking entry whose student(s) attend(s) ISDC will receive the Herman Rubin Memorial Scholarship of $5,000 and give a talk at the conference.
- Winner certificates, also in PDF format, will include the names of the students. These should arrive via email by late August to the registered user email address.
- Additional categories based on Artistic and Literary Merit are also included in the contest. Starting in 2023, the top entry in the Artistic Merit and Literary Merit categories, respectively, will each receive a $500 Scholarship (prize names pending).
Contest Rules
- 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, not temporary work camps. Typically, what distinguishes an outpost from a settlement is generational habitation.
- 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.
- Limit your entry to a MAXIMUM of 50 pages unless absolutely necessary for key aspects of the work. Entries of more than 50 pages will be significantly penalized.
- For all categories other than Artistic Merit, the primary entry is expected to be a single PDF file, although up to 10 attachments are allowed. Each may be no larger than 24 MB. Only the primary PDF submission will be required reading for the judges. Additional attachments should be considered supplemental.
- Submissions will be made electronically.
- The submission must be the student’s own work. Plagiarism is forbidden, and we employ state of the art software for detecting plagiarized material.
- 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 entirelystudent produced.
- All entries that are not excluded for plagiarism will be judged by one or more judges on their merits. All decisions by the judges are final. The judges’ decisions cannot be challenged in any way by any contestant. By submitting your entry, you agree that you cannot and will not contest the judges’ decisions in any way.
- Judge scoring criteria and comments are strictly confidential and will not be distributed to contestants.
How to Register?
Interested participants can register through this link.
Deadline
All submissions must be received by February 15, 2025 at 02:00am PST.
