“Your experiment, 250 miles above Earth, for the whole world to see." This is the promise made at the end of the video on the official website of the YouTube Space Lab contest. NASA has joined Space Adventures company, to support this competition. Space Adventures is cooperating with YouTube and Lenovo. With initiative and imagination, students have the opportunity to envisage and design their own experiment with a wonderful prize, flying it on the International Space Station.
The contest opened on 11 October 2011, and will continue to accept submissions in the form of a two-minute duration video through 7 December. Students age 14 to 18 can propose up to three separate original entries on the official YouTube Space Lab contest website. Participants can compete as either individuals or in teams of up to three members. Entries must include an experiment question, hypothesis, method and expected results.
Part of the appeal of the contest is the eminent panel of judges that will select the finalists, including Professor Stephen Hawking, NASA's Leland Melvin, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. The final selection includes a public vote which will begin via YouTube on 3 January 2012.
As an award, six regional finalists will get to travel to Washington, D.C., to participate in a zero-g flight. On 13 March, two global winners will be announced. The global finalists will get to travel to either Russia, where they can engage in a real astronaut training experience, or Japan to watch their experiment launch to space. They also receive the grand prize of having their experiments performed on the space station, and live broadcasted for the public via YouTube.
This competition aims to inspire students to look beyond their daily studies and ask their own questions of the universe around them. Proposed experiments will focus on either physics or life sciences with the hope that the entrants will take their experiences with them as they proceed in their education, perhaps towards careers in math and science.
NASA astronaut Mike Fossum urged students to join, from aboard the space station, through his own YouTube video.
"YouTube Space Lab is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you to have your experiment performed by astronauts like me in the space station," said Fossum. "Imagine, you become the scientist! Your experiment is performed in space and streamed back to Earth. The world watches as your scientific investigation unfolds. What will you do from onboard the International Space Station?"
References
NASA
www.nasa.gov/
Wikipedia