Submitted by Lynne F. Zielinski, NSS VP of Schooling Emerita, and Frances Dellutri, NSS Director of Schooling
Picture: ispace HAKUTO-R M1 lander pictures, April 20, 2023, courtesy ispace-U.S.
Two thrilling worldwide contests can have scholar paintings fly into house by means of the collaboration between ispace-U.S. and the Nationwide Area Society (NSS). This distinctive alternative has been provided by ispace-U.S. to the NSS Goddard 100 Contest and the NSS Roadmap to Area Artwork Contest.
By coming into these contests, college students have the chance of getting their paintings flown into house … perhaps even to the Moon!
ispace-U.S. is a lunar exploration firm offering transportation and infrastructure capabilities from Earth to lunar orbit and the floor of the Moon for presidency and business prospects. ispace-U.S. will make the most of its APEX 1.0 lunar lander to conduct its Mission to extend the frequency of lunar landings to move buyer payloads to the Moon. ispace-U.S. and the Nationwide Area Society (NSS) are in collaboration to provide winners of the Goddard 100 Contest and the Roadmap to Area Artwork Contest the distinctive alternative to have their work despatched to the Moon as a digital payload aboard an upcoming ispace-U.S. lunar mission. The longer term plan is topic to vary.
The Nationwide Area Society is an impartial, non-profit group devoted to the creation of a spacefaring civilization. As a membership group, NSS has an curiosity in offering advantages to its members and seeks to perform this partially by offering college students distinctive alternatives that may assist put together them to grow to be a part of the house workforce. With the assist of this NSS/ispace-U.S. collaboration, two NSS contests will additional that objective.
Contest 1: Goddard 100 Contest
The Goddard 100 Contest celebrates the launch of the primary liquid-fueled rocket on March 16, 1926, by Robert Goddard (the Father of Trendy Rocketry), and the improvements made in rocket know-how within the final 100 years. This contest is a collaboration between NSS and the SmallSat Schooling Convention. ispace-U.S. has agreed to additional assist the contests by becoming a member of the collaboration to fly contest photos into house. An thrilling growth is an anticipation that ispace-U.S staff could be excited by functioning as judges on this contest.
Robert H. Goddard was a real visionary, who foresaw humankind touring to the Moon and past. In a feat that’s as vital because the Wright Brothers Kittyhawk flight, Goddard engineered our future by creating the primary profitable liquid-fueled rocket that may in the end allow journey past the confines of Earth. This development in rocketry allowed the rocket to be throttled or shut right down to preserve power and provided a better power density than gunpowder, permitting for extra energy and better exhaust velocities. The Goddard story is considered one of innovation, perseverance, engineering, and focus as he pursued his imaginative and prescient of house exploration. The Nationwide Area Society hopes to encourage a brand new era to grow to be engineers, educators, innovators, and visionaries, and to proceed the work of Goddard and the outstanding women and men who’ve helped understand our place in right now’s rocketry packages.
The worldwide Goddard 100 Contest calls for college students to submit an utility inside three divisions:
- Junior division (ages September 11) college students submit a hand-drawn cartoon story concerning the historical past of rocketry and are challenged to carry their concepts of the long run into their story. They may even be requested to reply questions on their cartoon story.
- Intermediate division (ages 11-14) entrants may even hand-draw a cartoon story and complement the cartoon with an in depth narrative that discusses the speculative developments and eventualities in the way forward for house exploration and the usage of house.
- Senior division (ages 14 -19) entrants will acknowledge the work of Robert H. Goddard as an inspiration for the way forward for house journey and rocketry. This provides these college students the chance to make use of their creativity to attach with the beginnings of rocketry and picture modern concepts that is perhaps part of the way forward for house journey. Senior division college students will produce an infographic and an essay on their subject.
The Goddard 100 Contest will settle for purposes till January 31, 2026, with an announcement of winners round March 16, 2026.
Contest 2: Roadmap to Area Artwork Contest
There are lots of roads to house. The Roadmap to Area Artwork Contest visits a few of these pathways by means of a imaginative and prescient of the thoughts, difficult college students to provide a bit of historically made paintings that shares their concepts regarding the 2026 theme: “My Trip in Area”. The competition was named after an NSS publication, The Roadmap to Area Settlement, which identifies and descriptions main milestones alongside the highway to reaching a everlasting human presence past Earth.
The primary model of the Roadmap to Area Settlement Pupil Artwork Contest was held in 2013 and referred to as on college students to create paintings that illustrated specified milestones to house settlement from the NSS Roadmap publication. The competition was profitable and was held yearly from 2014 by means of 2017. It was revived in 2023 because the NSS Roadmap to Area Artwork Contest and partnered with the SmallSat Schooling Convention with the theme of making a “Imaginative and prescient of a Future in Area.” A possibility to ship the successful paintings into house aboard a Blue Origin suborbital rocket sparked substantial curiosity, receiving practically 5,799 world entries.
The competition has continued to develop and evolve. The theme for the 2024 contest was “Our Future within the Area Workforce” and challenged college students to embark on a visible journey right into a future wherein the cosmos has advanced into an unimaginable work of human ingenuity and creativity — a world the place individuals are residing and dealing on the Moon, Mars, the asteroids, and the place orbital house settlements like O’Neill settlements are realities.
College students could take part within the 2025 Roadmap to Area Artwork Contest beneath considered one of 4 divisions: center college (ages 10-14), highschool (ages 14-19), college (ages 19-22), or graduate college (ages 23-25). This yr’s theme is “My Trip in Area,” and asks college students to create paintings from the point of view of a vacationer within the photo voltaic system. College students create their imaginative and prescient of a future for humanity in house by means of artwork utilizing conventional strategies and non-AI generated strategies. College students could ship paintings on postcards into house aboard a Blue Origin suborbital rocket, which shall be returned to them after flight. ispace-U.S. is offering an extra alternative to have exemplary paintings digitally despatched additional—all the best way to the Moon. Submission Deadline: October 5, 2025
Go to the NSS Roadmap to Area Artwork Contest web site and try the 2024 Winners eBook.
Promotion of ispace-U.S. collaboration with the NSS contests:
Info on each contests shall be given at these NSS Schooling occasions:
- Scouting America: 2025 Council Camporee: Time Trek – A Journey by means of the Ages, September 20, 2025, Sandwich, IL (attendees: ~1,000 Scouts and adults)
- SmallSat Schooling Convention, October 25 – 26, 2025, Orlando, FL (attendees: ~1000 college students and adults)
- Area Exploration Educators Convention (SEEC), February 4-7, 2026, Area Heart Houston (attendees: ~500 Educators)
- NSS Worldwide Area Growth Convention, June 4-7, 2026, Hilton Mclean Tysons Nook, McLean, VA (Washington DC Metropolitan Space) (attendees: ~1,000 college students and adults)
E-blasts:
- NSS will ship out month-to-month mailings and updates for every contest and the ispace-U.S. collaboration to educators, college students, home and worldwide museums. (Mailing record:~6,000 recipients)
- The NSS twice-monthly Downlink e-newsletter selling the ispace-U.S. collaboration shall be despatched to NSS members.
Social media:
- Numerous NSS social media platforms will carry details about the contests and the ispace -U.S. collaboration (Fb, X.com, Instagram.com, LinkedIn.com)
