nasa essay contest winners

NASA Selects Winners of Artemis Moon Pod Essay Contest

NASA has named three students the winners of the Artemis Moon Pod Essay Contest for their creative visions of a pioneering journey to the Moon. Nearly 14,000 students entered the contest, each competing for the grand prize: a trip to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where they will witness the first launch of the Artemis era.

NASA invited students to envision themselves leading a crew, or “pod,” on a mission to the Moon’s South Pole, and capture these ideas in their essays. NASA and Future Engineers, an online platform for student challenges, launched the contest in September 2020 for K-12 students nationwide. The contest’s goal is to encourage the Artemis Generation – kids growing up during the era of NASA’s return to the Moon – to think ahead about the human and technological needs of a lunar expedition. What types of tools or technologies would they bring to the Moon? Who would they include in their “pod” of crewmembers? What would they leave behind for future lunar crews to use?

Grand-prize winning essays in the three, grade-level-based categories are:

• Kindergarten through fourth grade category: Austin Pritts of Wolcott, Indiana.
• Fifth through eighth grade category: Taia Saurer of Laguna Beach, California.
• Ninth through 12th grade category: Amanda Gutierrez of Lincoln, Nebraska.

“I want to extend my congratulations to the amazing Artemis Moon Pod Essay winners. NASA shares your excitement for humanity’s return to the Moon, and we are so inspired by your creative ideas for how to lead that expedition.” said Kathy Lueders, associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) at NASA Headquarters. “Get your boots ready, because you are the next era of space explorers – the Artemis Generation.”

Students across the nation wrote in to share their visions of a weeklong mission to the Moon’s South Pole. Over 1,000 educators, professionals, and space enthusiasts served as volunteers for the first round of judging, and selected  155 semifinalists  in March 2021. The list was narrowed further to  nine finalists  in April. A panel of four judges, including two from HEOMD and two from the agency’s Office of STEM Engagement, conducted virtual interviews with the finalists about their essays and ideas before choosing the three winners.

Pritts’ essay, “ My Mission to the Moon ,” tells the tale of a daring Moon Pod crew consisting of a test pilot/navigator, chemist, and mechanical engineer who establish a permanent lunar research facility powered by Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology (KRUSTY).

In “ One Week on the Moon – The Artemis Adventure ,” Saurer’s vision for the Moon Pod mission calls for a four-person crew – including the first woman to step onto the Moon – to build a habitat for future astronauts using a combination of lunar soil and a fibrous fungal material called mycelium.

Gutierrez’s composition, “ Dream Big Moon Pod ,” follows the adventure of a three-person crew of a chemist, hydrologist, and astronautical engineer as they install an Endothermic Electrolysis Reactor (EER), designed to provide fuel and oxygen for future crews at the Moon’s Shackleton Crater.

“I can’t tell you how inspiring and energizing it’s been to read these essays and see the students’ enthusiasm and creativity in action,” said Mike Kincaid, NASA’s associate administrator for the Office of STEM Engagement. “The future of space exploration is in good hands.”

The contest was a collaborative effort between NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement and the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, in partnership with the online platform Future Engineers.

Through Future Engineers, the grand prize winners will have the opportunity to travel with their families to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to see the first launch of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft during the uncrewed Artemis I mission. On this first flight of the Artemis program, the Orion spacecraft will travel beyond the Moon, nearly 280,000 miles away from Earth – farther than any spacecraft built for humans has ever traveled – during a three-week mission.

The 13,898 essays submitted to the Moon Pod Essay Contest will fly on a USB flash drive aboard Artemis I, and NASA will provide each student who participated a signed certificate. Each semifinalist will get the chance to learn even more about Artemis through a series of virtual Artemis Explorer Sessions with NASA experts, along with an Artemis prize pack filled with fun educational materials. The contest’s nine finalists also will have the chance to travel with a parent to the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to learn more about lunar exploration.

The Moon Pod Essay Contest aligns with NASA’s Artemis Student Challenges, an ongoing collection of engineering and technological design challenges allowing students worldwide to learn about human spaceflight topics and technologies.

Future Engineers hosts online innovation challenges for K-12 students. In 2014, Future Engineers launched its inaugural 3D printing in space challenge, sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Foundation with technical assistance from NASA, which produced historic achievements including the first student-designed 3D print in space. Through the support of the U.S. Department of Education’s Small Business Innovation Research Program, Future Engineers launched a multi-challenge platform in 2018 capable of hosting Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) challenges of all kinds.

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2022 AbSciCon Creative Science Writing Contest

Winners' entries compliation.

Poetry • First Place:   Martian Melody , by Lydia Kivrak • Second Place:   Once is Never , by Yunha Hwang • Third Place:   On Waiting , by Annaliese Meyer • Honorable Mention:   Six Limericks of Astrobiology , by Vince LiCatar

Short Stories: Fiction • First Place:   Pinpricks , by Margaret Weng • Second Place:   Encounters , by Teresa McCarrell • Third Place:   A Sky Beneath the Crust , by Rohan Chowdhury and Anurup Mohanty

First place

“martian melody” by lydia kivrak.

Listen closely - on geologic timescales, you see, Mars is actually quite noisy. It’s mostly the wind holding this planet tightly singing a constant low undulation punctuated with the short sharp shrieks of a week-long global cacophony of dust. More subtle is the grit of sand chafing and smoothing larger rocks like clenched teeth grinding down enamel. The occasional staccato clicks and clacks of boulders breaking is quiet compared to the loudest sound: the rare explosion of an impact rumbling far through the ground. Once, there were other noises: the rush of gurgling streams the lap of water on a lakeshore gentle bubbles of volcanic mud violent crashes of water breaking through walls of ice and, perhaps, something quieter- the subtle vibration of molecular bonds the tiniest zap of a redox reaction the imperceptible splash of a swimming microbe maybe even the occasional squelch of life. Some say, if you press your ear to the ground, you can still hear them- dancing in the last hidden pools. Lately, for the first time in billennia new sounds have been resonating through still cliffs. Mechanical, metallic movement, clicks and beeps wheels crunching rock an engine humming, harmonizing with the wind. The sounds of unpacking a toolkit: a drill-bit, a laser a microphone. And perhaps the wind is singing joyfully because after an eternity of song for the first time, someone hears. For the first time, on Mars, there are ears.

Second place

“once is never” by yunha hwang.

Oh, what a strange dream. I looked in the mirror, and nothing stared back.

And then I looked up, not a single star in the night sky! Just a smothering utter abyss.

Then it struck me, if there is nothing beyond us, did we ever exist?

If we happened just once, then einmal ist keinmal , once is never.

Never had I felt so alone, in this singular sequence of mistakes, that we call life.

How bizarre, to have lived and not lived at all.

And how disorienting, to disappear before I can awake from a dream.

Third Place

“on waiting” by annaliese meyer.

The sky should be on fire They told me As our backs grew damp with early dew Every star should reach with wonder to our eyes But the blackness does not burn For the universe is in a footrace with light And it is surely winning And though the darkness remains We listen For with eyes pressed shut all sounds grow stronger We shout, we send our signals crying Convinced we are not alone in yearning for the light Immense ears askance to waiting sky And nothing yet. We can hardly hear our own echoes.

Honorable mention

“six limericks of astrobiology” by vince licatar.

Remote detection is sometimes a pain The engineering’s a strain on the brain But we’ll labor for years And even sometimes through tears All this work just to sniff some methane And so NASA says follow the water But most everywhere’s colder or hotter So to find worlds in the zone Like to Goldilocks known Is going to need a really good spotter If we do find some microbes on Mars Will they toast us in all of the bars? Or will public opinion And false claims of dominion Insist we’re really alone in the stars? Sweet Europa is covered in ice And its atmosphere’s not very nice But the high radiation May spark funny causation Like swimming schools of mutated mice To search for a habitable zone You’ve got to get off of your phone It takes rockets and scopes, Math, spectra, and hopes To find hints that we’re not all alone Will we one day be living on Mars? And if so, will we drive Martian cars? They should not run on gas Such a move would be crass Let’s not bring our mistakes to the stars.

Short Stories: Fiction

First place, “pinpricks” by margaret weng.

INTRODUCTION

They came to Mars with good intentions. My mother came with seeds, dreaming of a densely laden orchard on the orange earth. Others came as builders, to stretch the limits of plastic and steel. They were obeying the impulse of their species: to survive and spread, to spread and then survive. They wanted to sink their foundations into virgin earth, land unsoiled by human touch. They came with millions of dollars of funding, years of research, and the confidence of experts.

They had trained for months in the desert east of Los Angeles. My mother kept a journal, recording the difficulties of their small steel bunker, their lack of privacy. At the end of their training, they had gone to a local restaurant to celebrate. Tired and smelly, they had piled into booths and benches, not looking at each other. “Where are you all coming from?” the waiter had asked, stacking laminated menus at the end of the table. “Mars,” my father had said, twirling a sugar packet between his fingers. And everyone had smiled.

They had all made sacrifices. My mother, for example, had left a tenure-track job at the University of California Davis. My father had been a mechanical engineer at a top aerospace company. They had families—parents, siblings, cousins. Yet they could not shake their secret restlessness, the voices that urged them away from known comforts toward the promise of better discoveries.

They came with a sort of fatalistic optimism. Earth, the great experiment, was failing. The seas were dying and the fish had become poisonous—their eyes hazy, their scales hardened, and their stomachs full of microplastics. On Mars there were no fish to kill or forests to raze, no life at all that any mission had detected. On Mars there were no colonial nations, no race or class, just the small nucleus of a new society.

When the mission launched, they were reasonably certain that they could live out their lives on the Martian surface. They carried supplies that would sustain them for twenty years, twenty-five if rationed, after which they hoped to be completely self-reliant. Earth communications were provided from a surprisingly low-tech radio device. As a child, I used to speak to mission control in Houston, turning the dials and not believing anything really existed beyond the darkness until voices came through the speaker with a sharp crackle.

The crew was a pilot program of only fifty people. Children were an ethical question. Any children born on Mars would stay there indefinitely, certain to inherit an uncertain and hostile world.

Of course, under the loneliness of an orange-and-black sky, with the sharp rasping cough of sandstorms against the walls of the compound, some turned to the comfort and familiarity of sex. Survive and then spread, spread and then survive. My father found my mother in the greenhouse while she was marking growth charts. He thought it was endearing that she had a smudge of dirt on her left cheek despite the sterility of her white lab coat. He thought it was unnerving but beautiful that she had recorded birdsong to play in the greenhouse, so that the plants wouldn’t have to grow in silence. He pretended there was a problem with the irrigation mechanism that only he could fix, which required him to be in the greenhouse for long hours tinkering with stretches of pipe while my mother walked up and down the rows, reading the undersides of leaves like a language.

When I was born, the rest of the crew tried their best to ignore it. The compound was no place for a child: it was a scientific research station, meant for serious work. The wind outside was empty, not the wind of the Mojave with its warm insect hum. I crawled through the severe hallways and played with strange lost things: stray Post-its, silver lugnuts, raw rice from the bags in the storeroom. Rice was a non-renewable resource: the starch we grew and ate most often was potatoes, which required the least amount of processing. My mother’s one concession to extravagance was the orchard where she grew oranges, apples and pomegranates. The ceiling was clear and let in the light. At sunsets, she held me on her lap to watch the blue flash. “On Earth, sunsets are red,” she told me, but I couldn’t imagine it. Nor could I imagine cities, houses like our compound arranged across the landscape for miles and the people moving between them, crowds of people, more than a thousand, flowing down the roads in their cars and bicycles and buses and trains that I had only read about in stories.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The ship carried twelve oxygen recyclers, to be installed throughout the compound. The material for the walls was an ultralight alloy. The hold was filled with cans of insulation and sprayable concrete to build the floors and foundations. Being lightweight was key. Lightweight and foldable. Each gram of material brought aboard cost $2,300 in fuel. Each astronaut was given a small quart-sized pouch for personal belongings, which had to weigh no more than one pound. The astronauts lived in the landing pod until they were able to build the compound. It was almost a year before it was fully habitable.

There were, of course, miles and miles of pipe. The pipe was compressible, but even so it took up a quarter of the hold. Pipes were necessary to transport things like water, gases, waste. A heating solution was carried by special pipes through the walls and ceiling to help insulate the buildings. It was the pipes, not the walls, that really kept the astronauts alive: walls, no matter how radiation-shielded, were useless against the freezing and airless dark.

Among the things my mother brought in her quart-sized bag: an e-reader, filled with as many titles as she could fit. A map of the Earth. A pair of earrings that had been her mother’s. The business card for a barbeque joint that read HOWARD’S, Open Nine to Five, Hwy 65, Lubbock, Texas.

Among the things my father brought: A Rubik’s cube. A letter from his sister, which he never let me open. A page from an engineering textbook. A picture of a young boy, which could have been himself.

My mother taught me in the free time before dinner: math, science, Martian geography. I learned the names of valleys people had once thought were seas, canyons mistaken for alien canals. When my father needed to venture Outside, my mother and I stood on the other side of the airlock chamber, listening to his breathing as he strapped himself into the EVA suit. He was gone for ten or twelve hours at a time, performing maintenance on the compound or helping one of the scientific teams with an experiment. He would show me the routes the night before, explaining what he had to do. He took me into the viewing room as another Martian day crept into the horizon, pointing at the miles of shifting pinkish sand before us.

When I was fifteen, people started to show signs of sickness. It was the soil. My mother’s crops had been planted in a mixture of Martian gravel and fertilizer. They discovered that the gravel was home to an extremely slow-growing nanoarchaea, an ancient relative to Earth, thought to have diverged soon after the last universal common ancestor. It had persisted through the long Martian winter by doing what no life had done before: living in geologic time. Some cells were estimated to be nearly a million years old, their cytoplasm thick as maple syrup and filled with DNA stabilizers. The addition of nitrogen fertilizer had stimulated a bloom of these nanoarchaea in the greenhouse soil, unfurling in the dark. Over the years, they had colonized our bodies, settling in the stomach, the bloodstream, the liver. Spreading below the surface like a bruise.

By the time we understood this this my mother could barely stand, her body riddled with tumors. She sat beneath her trees and ate pomegranates. I peeled them for her and handed her the seeds, her fingers as fragile as eggshells.

Officially, the greenhouse had to be abandoned. Most of the seed stock was gone. They would have to start again on what had been saved in the storerooms. The others blamed my mother. They didn’t understand why she had planted an orchard when vitamin C tablets worked just as well. They thought she had probably been careless with the soil screenings. They had always known she would be the weak link, a woman prone to sentimentality in her science, who brought sex and children to their perfect world.

Some of us got sicker, while others recovered. My father and I survived, but more than half the astronauts died. We couldn’t bury the bodies because the Martian ground was too hard. We built a cairn for them, beneath the branches of my mother’s trees, out of basalt rocks gathered from Outside. Then we took down the outer walls of the greenhouse to let the ferocious atmosphere reclaim it all.

The others began to talk of leaving.

Of course, it was impossible to leave. The technology did not exist. They had figured out so much before this trip. They had invented lighter and stronger materials, new food-storage techniques. They had consulted with a psychologist on what color to paint the walls. They had trained for starvation, for disaster, for stranding and for crashing, but they had not created a rocket that could both land on and lift off the Martian surface. This was a complex engineering problem and the astronauts hadn’t wanted to wait for it to be solved. Resupply ships could still launch from Earth if they needed anything. Such was their confidence, their desperation.

They radioed for help every night. At first, it was a request for a resupply ship: medical supplies, building supplies, garden soil. More food to supplement the dwindling stocks. But the radio was silent. No reply came from Earth. I wasn’t as panicked as the others. In my heart, I had always known that the cities my parents talked about were made-up words. My father spent a day inspecting the radio equipment and determined it was in perfect working order. The radio messages grew more urgent. Eventually, they set it to constantly broadcast SOS , like castaways fanning the smoke of a signal fire. After a month of no contact, in the middle of the night, my father shook me awake. It was time, he said, to use the Telescope. He helped me suit up quietly. We didn’t want anyone to ask where we were going. There were a lot of factions forming in the compound and alliances were tenuous, mistrust deep-seated. One group had seized control of the storeroom and insisted on measuring out every portion of food. Still, supplies were dwindling. My father turned the handle of the airlock and we stepped Outside.

My feet were protected from jagged rocks by the thick layer of memory foam in the soles of my boots. We climbed the first hill without speaking and set out across the meteor-speckled landscape, keeping an eye out for hidden craters. The ground was silvered by the light of the two pale moons, Phobos and Deimos. The low gravity made uphill portions easier but downhill harder, as I had to fight to keep my feet on the ground.

After about an hour’s walk, when my oxygen tank needle had begun to dip slightly below the three-quarter mark, my father stopped abruptly and said, “We’re here.”

I looked behind me. The compound had disappeared behind a ridge, so that we seemed entirely and terminally alone. In the distance I could see the hazy outline of Olympus Mons, which swallowed the horizon. Before us was another building made of the same shiny silver material as our compound. My father took a set of old-fashioned keys from the pocket of his EVA suit and with great difficulty inserted one into the door.

“This is the Telescope,” he explained to me as we stepped inside. “It was created so that we could monitor Earth. Only a few people here know about it—it was top-secret, funded by the military. There’s also a secure radio line to Earth that’s always operational.”

He flipped on a bank of lights and I blinked as my eyes adjusted. The room was empty and cold, sheltered by glittery chrome walls. In the middle of it sat a huge telescope pointed at an opening in the ceiling. My father pointed at a second set of doors that had a familiar airlock symbol on the side.

We stepped in and cycled through the airlock. My father explained that you could see the readout from the telescope on the computers in this room, as well as use the secure radio channel. There were enough emergency rations to last years, and a supply of weapons and ammunition.

He crossed over to a desk and booted up a big bank of computers. He tapped away for a few minutes. Then his voice got very quiet. “Look,” he said to me.

I looked over his shoulder at the image onscreen. Years ago, my parents had explained how the continents of Earth were outlined by tiny pinpricks of light, a delicate lacework of highways and towns. Now all we saw were swirling clouds moving across the face of the planet. It was night on Earth but there were no lights, the oceans and continents nearly indistinguishable. “Where are they?” I asked him.

“Gone,” he said, reading lines of coded messages on the screen. I asked him to translate the messages for me but he refused. “It doesn’t matter,” he said, shaking his head. He was a person who believed in outcomes, the blessed ignorance of facts. He would say to me often: It doesn’t matter what you think. It’s what you do that counts. “It doesn’t matter which country invaded, whose resources they wanted, who set off the first bomb. They’re gone,” he said, “and we’re here.”

I went silent. My father started to make plans. What we would bring back to the compound, how we would survive. Later the colonists, led by my father, emptied their quart-sized pouches into a controlled burn in the communal living space, the only fire that has ever been allowed in the compound. They all pledged to forget Earth, to set new points of reference, to recalibrate their standards for their new world. This had been their mission after all, the mission of no return. Instead of building a new society, they were now composing a eulogy. There was never another child born in the compound and there never will be. Before the bags were burned I took my mother’s e-reader. I wanted to know what she had left, why she had come.

Eons from now, the cairn where we buried my mother will stand untouched, her body frozen to the planet’s surface. On Earth, the shifting tectonic plates will do their work. Tenuous weeds will rebuild the soil, new rivers will carve canyons through the lace of city streets, rubbing away our mark in a geologic blink. As though we had never been there. As though our species had been born and died on the Red Planet, which holds our mistakes and memories forever.

Second Place

“encounters” by teresa mccarrell.

Auberginne Falcon’s homeworld was beautiful. It had taken over a hundred and fifty years to find it after the fateful day of her death.

Byzantine had a perfect memory. Every second of the screaming of the crew of the G. S.S. Explorer 951, the cries of both friends and people that were merely polite, was permanently engraved in memory. The starship had been attacked by another vessel, and destroyed in the onslaught of laser fire. Byzantine was made of essence. The essence was like gas. Perhaps more like plasma, or simply just energy. Something that could absorb laserfire without harm. But that didn’t make saving people possible, not when the gas was incapable of trapping air around people when wrapping around them.

Byzantine sighed. Some of the crew had died like that. Auberginne…

Byzantine shook away the memory, and peered out from an alley. This was a marvelous city. If only Byzantine had known about it, back then…if the people could’ve been teleported to safety into this city… Byzantine slid to the ground.

The sound of thunder began to rumble in the sky. Lighting crackled. Byzantine looked up at it, recognizing a similar weather phenomenon that other worlds had. Rain was awful, reacting poorly to their strange hair… Although Byzantine had learned to mimac foreign skin tones, that utterly alien true nature was ever present in the hair. But, Byzantine thought the suffering of being rained on was deserved.

The rain had just begun to fall, sizzling as it hit that hair, when something blocked it from above. Byzantine looked up, misty orange eyes meeting a pair of empathetic green ones.

“Hey, kiddo. Are you ok?” A young woman stood over him, tilting her umbrella to keep the rain from falling onto him. She was very surprised to encounter the child crumpled in the alley. This simply didn’t happen on Ornith. No one abandoned precious children in the streets like this, not when they were so hard to have. No one would have such a unique looking child without them being blasted on social media either Byzantine’s head slowly shook. “Nothing’s ever “ok”… but… I guess so.”

The woman shook her head. “Are you all alone out here?”

“…..yeah…”

She pursed her lips. “That’s not good. What happened to your family? If I may ask?” Byzantine looked down. “I …….”

“You don’t have to talk about it. Hey, let’s get you to the police, they can help out.”

“No government!” Standing up, the oversized shirt was almost comically large on the small frame.

The woman looked very sad, for some reason that Byzantine couldn’t understand.

“The government won’t hurt you.” She said.

“It has before, and it will if I let it again.” answered Byzantine.

“Well….” the woman hesitated. She looked over at Byzantine once again. “If you don’t have anywhere to go, come and stay with me and my roommate for now. We’ll figure this out together.”

“You would welcome me into your home…?” asked Byzantine.

“What can a kid like you do to two adult women?” The woman held out her hand. “I’m Eva’la Serafinski. What’s your name and pronouns?”

“My name is Byzantine. Please call me ‘Zany.’ I’m a boy.” Despite the chilly air, Byzantine’s hand was oddly warm in hers.

Together, the two walked along the Ornithian sidewalk in the lightly pattering rain. Zany came up to about the height of Eva’la’s waist when standing, so he didn’t have to reach his hand high to hold hers. Yet, it was enough to make his oversized sleeve slide down to his elbow. Eva’la glanced at his arm, finally comprehending the complete lack of feathers on his body. If there were a few feathers mixed with his hairs, he could have passed for being part birrlin, the people of Ornith, but there were not. Zany had settled on this form long ago, and he had not thought to change it to better blend into this world.

“You’re not from this planet either, huh?” asked Eva’la. Clearly not birrlin, Eva’la had a full head of hair.

“No, I’m not.” Zany said, not offering more details.

Eva’la was brimming with curiosity, eager to look this child up in the system once they got to her apartment.

Zany could sense some of what Eva’la was feeling. He could look into her mind and see her exact thoughts, but he wasn’t to pick through a person’s private, jumbled thoughts. He had learned others disliked that. He couldn’t stop himself from sensing her feelings though, unlike how mind reading was an active power he had to focus to use, sensing others’ locations and feelings was instinctive.

Lost in thought, Zany noted that Ornith was a relatively advanced world compared to many he had seen. The paved pathways that he and Eva’la were walking on were broad, consisting of sweeping sidewalks bordering some form of metal vehicle tracks. The sidewalk portions of the pathways were studded with patches of vibrant purple plant life. Occasionally, a long and sleek vehicle would swoosh down the tracks. The tracks were electromagnetic, Zany could sense it. He sensed the essence…no, they called it energy… flowing through the tracks. In a way, all energy called to him. He could absorb it and make it part of his own form, or he could manipulate it in any way he wished. It was an ability he had avoided using most of his existence though, because he hated feeling different from the mortals. He could never be one of them, but that didn’t stop him from pretending his very best. Zany looked up at Eva’la. She also appeared lost in thought. They walked in silence until they reached one of the many tall, glossy buildings on the street. Eva’la took out a small, glossy card from her pocket, and tapped her to the doorknob, unlocking it. She led Zany to an elevator. They took the elevator to the 235th floor and walked down a hall. Eva’la tapped her card to one of the doors in the hall, and it slid open as well. Eva’la ushered Zany into the unit and closed the door. Eva’la had tried to pry about Zany’s origins a few times during the walk, but once it seemed he was close to running away, she stopped, and they had walked in silence.

She now cleared her throat. “My place is only a one bedroom, but I’m sure you can have the couch. We’ll have to ask my roommate when she gets home. Now… I’ll get us some hot beverages, then we can really talk about where you came from and who you are, huh?” After saying that, the door made a soft locking sound, closing Zany into the unit with Eva’la.

Zany was slightly afraid, feeling the excitement in Eva’la’s aura. He struggled to remain in control of his own emotions. One of the many flaws he had, which was probably a trait of his species, was that he instinctively wanted to radiate his emotions. He didn’t know whether it was due to his species or just a unique trait of his, since he had never met another of his kind. If his fear emanated from him, and she felt it… who knew how she would react.

The easiest way to solve this would be to see what was really in Eva’la’s mind.

It could be awful. But, he had to do it.

Zany reached his mind out to Eva’la’s. There was very little resistance, and then he could navigate her mental space.

This little kid is so interesting looking… I need to know how it’s possible for his hair to look like it’s got actual stars in it. Wonder if it would freak him out if I touched it. That’s rude though, right? For sure. When’s this kid last eaten? What does he eat? I’m so curious!

“Don’t touch it.” Zany blurted.

Eva’la blinked. I shouldn’t touch his hair, huh? Weird that he’d say that right when I was wondering.. Somewhat suspicious.. Her eyes narrowed. Don’t some species have mental abilities? It’s illegal to use something like that, but, maybe the kid doesn’t know.

Zany suppressed a sigh, as well as a new wave of fear that nearly emanated out of him.

“I should go.” Zany looked pointedly at the door.

Eva’la shook her head. “Do you have mental abilities?” she asked outright. Not that anyone would admit to it. Maybe I can get him in a corner where it’s obvious. Oh, hang on, he could be dangerous. He could be a spy! I should’ve brought him into the lab instead of into this home. Kestrel’s going to be SO angry with me.

Zany’s hands clenched a little in his oversized sleeves.

“What are you?” Eva’la asked. Seriously, I’ve never heard of a species with stars in their hair. I have to know how that works. I have to know if those are real. I’ve got to get him into the lab!

“I… I’m a Celestial. I think.” His voice was really small. A little bit of fear radiated from Zany in a small wave, permeating the air around him for a moment.

Eva’la almost fell to her knees in shock. She reached for Zany, gripping his shoulders. “What was that? What was that?!” Was that a mental ability? No.. my mind wasn’t affected.. I don’t feel fear? Was it an ineffective mental ability?

Zany looked up at her. “Eva’la…” For a moment, Zany considered teleporting away. There was still so much of the planet to explore. But, he could feel her deep joy and curiosity. She seemed intrigued by him… which made him intrigued by her.

It was so rare that someone was anything but afraid of him.

“It was my own feelings.” Zany answered honestly. “But, I’m not afraid anymore.”

“Your own feelings? How..?”

“Um… it’s hard to explain. My feelings don’t stay in my mind unless I’m trying to keep them to myself. And, that’s hard to do!”

“…interesting.”

“I’m really sorry! I do my best to keep them inside, but sometimes the feelings get too big, and… And they… spill out..” Zany hung his head a little.

Eva’la looked gently at him. “It’s ok. It wasn’t mind control, so, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Just don’t do it in public. If someone thinks you have the ability to control people, that would end poorly. Do you have the ability to control minds?”

“No! I can see what others are thinking and feeling, and share my own thoughts and emotions, but I can’t affect others. And I wouldn’t want to either.”

“That’s good. There’s another thing I’ve been curious about… your hair. It looks like it’s got small stars in it, unless I’m mistaken?”

Zany touched his hair. “You’re not wrong. That’s what it looks like. It…” he trailed off. If only he could wear a hoodie. But the hoodie would be singed where it touched those stars.

Eva’la was intrigued. “Could I have a sample of it?”

Zany flinched. “No!” Pain, the feeling of being held in a small enclosure, energy drawn from his burning form. Stars produce energy, they said. Energy can be used as fuel, they said. He wasn’t a person, he was just fuel. So he burned and burned, fueled and fueled a powerful starship. There was no feeling besides agony from the cramped tube ripping his very essence apart. Fission, they said. Nuclear fusion in a living thing, no, in a sentient fuel? Pain, until the starship was destroyed and he was finally free and was Byzantine again, not just energy and pain.

He came out of the fierce chokehold of memory when Eva’la splashed water onto him. She was shaking lightly. Zany hated water. He was shaking too.

“Your hair!” exclaimed Eva’la. “It’s moving! And… you’ve been radiating sadness and fear, I think? It… what happened? I’m sorry that I asked for a sample. I won’t take anything from you without your consent!”

Zany’s orange, star-flecked “hair” had begun to resemble gas. The edges of each strand was slightly blurred. In addition, his skin had taken on an orange tint to it, with the impression of stars visible beneath the surface.

“Sorry….” whispered Zany. Then he smiled. “You’re so nice..!”

What exactly have I brought into my home? Eva’la wondered. “Kestrel’s going to be upset…”

“Oh. My roommate, Kestrel Falcon. So, I do have to get her permission before you can actually stay here, but I’m sure she’d be up for it.” Eva’la suppressed her next words. You’re just so interesting. She swallowed. I can’t let you get scared away. I’m so lucky to be the one who found you.

“Falcon..?! Like, Auberginne Falcon?” Zany lept up, floating for a split second before landing. He composed himself fully, his hair and skin somehow losing their alien aspects. Then he cleared his throat. “Are birrlin a species in which names are passed through families?”

“Well, are names passed on in your specie’s families?” asked Eva’la. Does he have a family? Is he naturally born from some species we’ve never seen, or was he made?

“I don’t know…” Zany frowned, wanting an answer to his own question. Again, he was tempted to simply check her mind.

“You don’t know?”

“Is Kestrel Falcon related to Auberginne Falcon?”

Eva’la held up her hands. “I don’t know her whole family. You can ask her when she comes back.”

“I’m going to make dinner. What do you eat?”

Zany shifted a bit. “I don’t eat.”

“You..don’t eat?”

Zany bit his lip. “I…I.. don’t. Solid food is…gross.”

Eva’la leaned in again. Would he freak out if I took notes during our conversations? “How do you live without food? Are you alive?”

“I.. I think I’m alive?” his voice got small. “I grow… I talk… I make friends… I feel pain… what makes something a someone? What’s the difference between people and fuel? Just because I.. I’m not…” he trailed off.

“Living things grow, reproduce, and die. If you don’t eat, how do you get carbon and electrons?”

“I don’t die…” his voice was barely audible.

Eva’la stared.

The moment of silence grew.

“I think you’re alive.” she said after a moment. “You could be too young to understand death. If you’re not alive, you’re an amazing AI. With an incredible holographic projected form. I’ve heard about that kind of thing, in another sector.”

“I think I’m alive too. Because it hurts to think about not being alive.” Zany reached for his hair, playing with the wavy ends of it, looking so much like a lost child. “Carbon… electrons? Electrons are part of electricity, right?”

Eva’la took out the glossy card that had let them into the building and unit. “Have you seen one of these before?”

Zany shook his head, eyes widening. “No? Wait. The people… the people in starships have them, right? G-cards?”

Eva’la nodded. “G-cards, also known as Galactic-cards, because anything in the galaxy that you need to get done can be done with these things. Have you ever used one?”

“Um… no. I can’t have one because I’m not a citizen.”

“You have interesting levels of knowledge about our society. Knowing that only citizens can have G-cards is already unusual, because everyone on every planet is a citizen and gets one once they reach school-age.. And you seem passionate about one of our long-dead historical explorers. But, you’re not from any world in the known systems, and you haven’t been to school, or else you’d know what carbon and electrons are.”

Zany waited while she thought out loud. Not saying anything. Not denying anything.

Eva’la tapped the card twice, causing an opaque hologram screen to pop up. There were many colorful icons on it.

“These are games,” said Eva’la. “This is the Gifi app, which you can use to access the Galactic Intrinsic Free Internet and learn about stuff.” She tapped the icon for the app. A plain screen popped up, with a box in it. She tapped it, and a rectangular grid popped up beneath the box, with letters on it. “Can you spell? Hang on, can you read and write? You speak our language very well.”

“I can read and write, yes.” Zany looked transfixed. He typed out “c-a-r-b-o-n?” into the search box of the Gifi app.

“That’s good! Read about carbon while I cook myself something to eat. If you want to go backwards, hit the tiny arrow in the lower left. If you want to go to the main screen to try some of my games, hit the circle in the lower right.”

“Ok!” Zany said. His eyes were glued to the hologram screen as Eva’la gently set the G-card into his hands. “Carbon is an element highly abundant in all known living things..” he read quietly to himself, as Eva’la went into the kitchen.

Zany was beating the 105th level of Grumpy Asteroids 2 on the G-card when the door to the unit slid open. A birrlin woman stood in the doorway. She had a mass of red feathers on her head and smaller masses of red feathers above her eyes, drawn close in a confused frown. “What in the galaxy?” she asked.

“Hi… I’m Zany…” Zany kept playing the game while he glanced shyly at her. “Are you Kestrel Falcon? Are you related to Auberginne Falcon?”

“What in the galaxy??” she repeated. She stepped inside. The door slid shut soundlessly. “Eva!!” Scrambling sounds were heard in the kitchen.

The red-feathered woman stomped past Zany and into the kitchen. “Is this a kid? Why’s there a kid in our house? What’s with his head— is that hair or not? What are you doing?”

Eva’la was writing up notes by hand on the side of a box. “I gave him my G-card, so I had to put my notes from my conversation with him on something. Kestrel, please don’t be upset. This is a fascinating discovery for science! That kid’s hair looks like it can move on its own, and he said he doesn’t eat!”

“With you trying to cook, we might not get to eat either.” Kestrel sullenly turned off the food de/rehyrator that had been beeping since she entered the unit. “How can you even burn anything with this? It’s so easy to use!”

“Ah?” Eva’la registered the burnt odor in the air. “Oh. No. I didn’t burn the food. That… must’ve been… uh…?” She was confused for a moment, then remembered. “I think the kid, Zany, burned his clothes when he was freaking out earlier.”

“What exactly have you brought in here?” Kestrel asked again.

“Stop asking, and let me explain.” Eva’la answered.

In the other room, Zany paused the game, and set the Gcard on the table. I guess I can’t stay here. I don’t want people to fight over me. And the way Eva’la looks at me sometimes…

When Eva’la and Kestrel walked out of the kitchen, Zany was gone.

Kestrel was scowling. “Why was he asking if I’m related to Auberginne?”

“I don’t know.” Eva’la picked up the Gcard. She gasped. “Kestrel, he was almost finished with this game.” Kestrel turned towards her. “So?”

“The game’s got a lot of puzzles. Without them, and if you skip reading the storyline, the playthrough is only an hour. I’ve been cooking for a little over an hour.”

“…So?”

“Kestrel, you can’t skip the puzzles. And this item equipped on his character can only be gained as a reward for completing bonus puzzles you get if you read the storyline. This kid is a genius! A genius, new species we’ve never seen before! And he slipped through my hands..!”

“Our hands. I’m not letting some strange child run around in this sector.” Kestrel laid a hand to her hip, where a laser-blaster was comfortably strapped. “I’ll find out what’s going on here.”

“Don’t shoot him!”

“I won’t. I don’t want to shoot a kid.” Kestrel turned and walked outside. “Now, he can’t have gotten far.”

Eva’la looked at the de/rehydrator a little longingly, thinking of the food inside. Then she hurried after Kestrel. She didn’t think Kestrel would use her weapon, but couldn’t be sure Zany wouldn’t be intimidated.

On the other side of the massive city of Avia was a museum. All museums on the planet Ornith were free, as Zany was discovering when he walked in without objection.

Not that Zany truly understood money.

He drew his new hat a little more over his head, the price tag swinging off the back.

“Go Blue Boys!” exclaimed the hat, in colorful text that was decidedly not blue.

Zany had no idea who the Blue Boys were, only that this hat was easy to grab without gaining attention.

The material was a little tough too, so it would hold up for a while before his hair burned through it.

He wandered in the museum, amazed at the skeletal remains of species that had once walked on this planet. Many planets were like this, Zany realized. They started with very small lifeforms, then got bigger ones, then sentient ones. Some species stopped existing, and new species took their place. It was how life was on planets.

“Excuse me?” A man came up to Zany.

Zany turned to him, holding onto his hat. “Hi! Do you have any information on Auberginne Falcon here?”

“Yes, we do, on the sixth floor. Where are your parents?”

“Thank you!” Zany began to walk briskly away.

“Kid..!” The man rushed after him.

Zany ducked behind a corner, focused , and vanished. He reappeared on the sixth floor. A group of kids stared at him. A finger raised to point.

Quickly, Zany went to some exhibits outside of their line of sight.

After a while, he found what he was looking for. “Auberginne…” Eyes brimming with misty tears, Zany remembered fondly the woman who had found him lost and alone in space, and given him affection.

157 years ago.

The G.S.S Explorer 951 was in the midst of an extremely dull 5 year mission of gliding through an unexplored sector for mapping when the crew suddenly experienced more than they thought they would, particularly after having been conditioned for 2 years of boredom that nothing happened on these missions.

The starship had momentarily detected something unidentified before the signal vanished. The crew were terribly nervous.

In one of the engine rooms, the reason for the nervousness was nervous itself. A small clump of what appeared to be orange, sparkling gas had slowly pushed its way into the ship through one of the engine exhaust vents. It had been so long since it had crossed paths with other beings, and couldn’t resist the lure of interacting with them. But it had learned from previous encounters. Simply appearing to these beings from outside of their protective container— a starship, they called it— would merely result in them shooting things at it, not communicating. It was better to go closer to them, absorb their language, take a form similar to thiers, and then, finally, finally communicate. Unsure about its chances if it moved around the starship prior to this process, the gas hid in a corner as someone came in to inspect the engine. An alarm was blaring, the engine wasn’t suited for such hot gas to force its way through those specific components.

The junior engine technician wrung his hands. “Honestly, I don’t know what happened—it was so weird. The engines did … something…and orange exhaust came out?”

The senior technician frowned. “Orange exhaust.”

The junior nodded.

The senior technician gestured at the orange pressed into a dusty corner. “That….?”

Gasp. “Yes, exactly. It’s so sparkly! No, hang on. It looks like it has stars and black holes in it?”

“Huh, that it does. That’s obviously not part of the ship, we should stay away from it and notify the captain.”

“Right!”

The gas slowly swirled as it began to comprehend the thoughts in the solid beings’ minds. Feelings were always easy for it to pick up from foreign minds. Images and sounds were something that now made sense after it had learned to take a solid form and experience them on its own, long ago. Words were difficult at first though. Eventually, by associating words in beings’ minds with the feelings and what their senses experienced while the words were in their mind, it was able to understand what meanings were associated with words. And based on images in their minds, it could tell that the beings in the ship came in a variety of forms. It chose one that reminded it of its favorite species from the past, and began to force its gas into the form.

The junior screamed as the gas began clumping and forming a body. He practically lept behind his senior. The senior wasn’t less unnerved, but hid it better. She closed her hand on her laser gun, prepared to level it at the unknown …thing. It wasn’t yet clear if it was a weapon or entity.

“Identify yourself!” She shouted.

Where the gas had been a moment before, there was now a tangle of limbs and hair. Two legs neatly folded beneath the cascading orange hair. Two arms carefully parted the hair from a softly featured face. The being’s skin was a shade lighter of the orange that its gas had been, the color that its hair now was. The stars and black holes from its previous form were still present. A shy smile broke onto its face, as if oblivious to the deadly threat a laser gun could pose. Gentle eyes belied an ancient mind, far older than the young form in front of the two engineers.

It worked its lips for a moment, remembering how to use them, and then spoke with words it had found in their minds. “Hello! I am not…” there was a momentary pause as it searched again. “Not hurt you! Greetings, peace.” It held up its hands.

The junior officer slipped a shiny metal card out of his uniform, and pressed the logo on the front, enabling a holographic screen to pop up in front of him. He tapped at it, sending a warning alert of an intruder to the rest of the crew.

“You come in peace…through our engine?” The senior frowned.

The being felt her displeasure. “Apologies…. Want.. I want friends. I …did not want to hurt you or ship.” At its moment of distress, the being’s hair became a little gaseous, the ends of it floating.

Alarms were blaring through the ship.

“We don’t have time for this, security can question it. We have to fix the engine quickly.” The senior rapidly changed focus to open a panel on the wall.

The being floated a little, moving closer. Some of its skin changed, the top layer seeming to separate to form what appeared to be a skin-tight outfit, an imitation of the uniforms of the crew, except that it retained the same star flecked appearance as the rest of its body.

The junior shuddered. “Stay back!” He drew towards his senior to help her work on the ship. Of course a vessel that wasn’t intended to encounter others didn’t have a large crew. There were no other engineers to assist them.

If they didn’t fix this, the ship wouldn’t fly anymore. They would be adrift until another ship found them, which, this far out from civilization, would be upwards of two years… that would use up a lot of their supplies. It would be close.

“Apologies… I …I’m sorry…” the being’s voice wavered as the ship’s alarms blared on. The captain strode in and began speaking frantically to the engineers. Then she turned to the orange being rocking in the corner, repeating itself over and over in its soft, tiny voice.

“It’s….a preteen child.” She stated, frankly. “A child of an unknown species that damaged our ship, but can grasp that and is upset….but, child, can you help us? We won’t point our weapons at you. Do you understand?”

The child lifted its head. Seeing the tears in the captain’s eyes, and sensing the connection between the feeling of sadness and the liquid in her eyes, the child made some of its own eye liquid. Or, it tried. It appeared gaseous.

“I want to help! How?”

The captain gestured at the engine. “They say you’ve melted some components in the right engine. So, it’s having a meltdown. We can survive without this engine working, but we can’t survive if it keeps going critical and explodes. So, maybe, if you could go in and remove the melted parts…” she trailed off, watching the child’s confused but earnest expression. It turned its head to the engine, and then the entire thing vanished.

The people in the room gaped.

The child suddenly looked shy, becoming very aware that now the scale of power difference between itself and these people was even more apparent.

They’re nice people. I shouldn’t have come here though, it thought.

“Where are you from?” The captain inquired, as the engineers began to debate how the engine could’ve gone away, where it could be now.

“What are you? Who are you? Why are you here?” She continued raining down questions. The child smiled, a small flash of happiness that didn’t reach those sad, old eyes. “I want friends…but you will die someday. All friends do. It’s so sad. I’m …” it grappled for a word. “Don’t want to be sad anymore.”

The captain reached for the child, wanting to pat it, but it quickly dashed away. It watched her carefully.

“I’ll be your friend,” said the captain. “I don’t know what you’ve been through, but right now you can claim asylum on our ship as our guest.”

The child’s eyes teared up again. “Ok. I’ll stay with your ship until you die!” Its lip wobbled. “What’s your name?”

She smiled. “I’m the Captain of this vessel, so that’s what you can call me. But my name is AuberginneFalcon, from the planet Ornith. What about you, do you have a name?” The child’s face lit up.

“Yes! I am Byzantine, and what you can call me is Zany!”

“You’ve very interested in my great-aunt, aren’t you?” Kestrel said, looking at Zany, who was gripping the display of Auberginne’s contributions to space exploration before her disappearance.

Eva’la was a little behind her, lost in reading a plaque.

Zany looked at Kestrel. “So, she is your family?”

Kestrel nodded.

Eva’la came forward, stepping in front of Kestrel. “Did we scare you away earlier? We’re sorry.”

Zany’s expression wavered. “I shouldn’t stay with you.”

Kestrel spoke up. “Eva says you’re not a citizen.”

Zany looked up at them. His eyes were faintly tinged with an orange haze, similar to tears. “I’m not a citizen of your planetary confederation. I’m from both outside it… and before it.”

“A homeless child claiming to have come from beyond the known star systems is quite a story. Eva believes it, but I’m not sure that I do.”

“It’s ok if you don’t believe me or not. I don’t care.” Zany turned back to the exhibit on Auberginne.

“Why are you so interested in this Ornithian explorer?” asked Eva’la.

Zany shook his head. “She was my friend…”

Kestrel frowned.

Eva’la slowly shook her head. “How? If the government knew about you then, how come there’s no record of you anywhere?”

“No government. What I am scares the government…” his eyes brimmed with misty orange tears again, remembering discovering the identity of the ones who had attacked Auberginne’s ship. One of her own crewmates had reported that the ship housed a “dangerous being,” and so, another government vessel had attacked them.

Kestrel grew silent for a moment. “Kiddo, I am the government.”

Zany whimpered a bit.

Eva’la lightly hit her arm. “Don’t scare him again!” She turned to Zany. “Auberginne worked for the government, yet you called her a friend. We want to be your friends too.”

“You might be nice to me, but what about her?” Zany shyly peered at Kestrel.

“I’m tentatively interested. Let’s put it that way,” said Kestrel. “I don’t mind if you stay on our couch, solely because I’d rather have you where someone responsible can keep an eye on you than have you fall into the wrong hands.”

“Harsh…” Eva’la mumbled.

“I might be heavy handed with my words, but it’s better than mincing them,” sighed Kestrel.

“Wait. You want me to stay with you? Isn’t it dangerous for you? What if other people find out?” Zany’s eyes were wide.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Eva’la said, waving her hand a little.

Zany broke into a grin. For a moment, the feeling of happiness flooded their vicinity.

Kestrel stood, frozen. Eva’la laughed.

“It’s not as weird the second time!” Eva’la elbowed Kestrel. “He’s so interesting!”

“I’m so happy to make new friends.” Zany kept smiling.

Kestrel stared at him, then sighed. “Let’s go, before someone investigates that mental push of emotion.”

Eva’la held a hand to Zany. He took it.

“Cool hat, by the way,” she said, teasingly.

“Is it?” asked Zany.

“The Blue Boys are an underdog music team in a music drama show. If you like, you can watch it on Eva’s Gcard,” responded Kestrel. After a beat, she took Zany’s other hand. After confirming that it felt like a regular hand, she relaxed some.

“Why not yours?” asked Eva’la.

“Some of us are busy and need theirs,” answered Kestrel.

“I’d love to watch it!” Zany beamed.

The three of them walked out together, hand in hand.

Third place

“a sky beneath the crust” by rohan chowdhury and anurup mohanty.

When the Pod turned upside down, Athena’s notions of reality followed suit.

Athena’s mind catapulted faster than the Pod that she knew was falling between two parallel sheets of ice. Captured in an extraterrestrial free fall, she could no longer remember what she was doing inside the cramped chamber altogether. Athena glanced at her crew – now halved from leaving three astronauts behind. A small red dot shone above their heads, casting the two people in front of her into dull silhouettes. Her heart echoed in her ears and the cracks in her throat dried further at the thought of calling out to her crew for help. She felt nauseous but knew there was nothing left to retch, for her insides felt hollower than the void that lay outside the Pod.

Her only source of comfort was the seat that she was clasped onto. Realizing that she could no longer move her hands or legs, she gave in to the immobility that was gaining control over her. The straps that kept her from falling seemed to tighten around her body, asphyxiating her slowly.

She wondered if this was it.

’Distance to impact: 1000 meters.’

She closed her eyes and allowed the glow of the red dot to consume her. Flashes from home filled her mind as she sunk into her torpor. Home, which had become a distant memory left two and a half years behind, a distant memory that would take two and a half more years to return to. A memory gradually fading, of a home, of a people, and of a planet tethered to the tiny hurtling Pod by means of a 43-minute delay.

’Distance to impact: 800 meters.’

It took a while for Athena to register the Pod’s voice. When she did, she opened her eyes, allowing her vision to adjust to the dark interiors, noticing the red glow settling on the silhouettes of the crew members again.

’Distance to impact: 500 meters.’

The preprogrammed voice cut through the dead silence of the crew. Athena saw her crew relaxing their shoulders, unstiffening themselves. Athena let herself calm as well, deafening her echoing heart by taking a violent gasp of breath.

’Distance to impact: 400 meters.’

I am Athena Hulman. Woman, 38. From Utrecht, Netherlands. Astronaut, GSA . Flight Commander, Zeus II.

’Distance to impact: 300 meters.’

I am inside the Pod with Takehiro and Riya. We’re here to save the planet. We’re here to do the right thing.

’Distance to impact: 200 meters.’

We’re here to save the planet. We’re here to do the right thing.

’Distance to impact: 100 meters.’

We’re here to do the right thing.

’Distance to impact: 50 meters.’

We’re… here to do the right thing.

‘Brace for impact.’

We’re here to do the right thing?

Athena closed her eyes again as Europa consumed the Pod in a silent splash.

As Zeus II neared completion of its flyby past Mars, Hassan looked out of the window. The rusty planet looked like a large abandoned piece of spherical debris floating in space. Coupled with its two oddly-shaped moons, it reminded him of his irritable old neighbor who lived with his two kooky cats.

Hassan chuckled to himself. An estranged rover was perhaps still crawling in those valleys that once had rivers gushing through it. When it was established that Mars was once home to life, it became an arena for space agencies worldwide to explore settlement strategies. Space exploration discourse shifted towards giving humanity a new home on an extraterrestrial planet, and missions were funded exorbitantly.

The efforts failed, of course. When matters on Earth took a turn for the worse, scientists globally had to re-prioritize. Despite having expended humongous resources on Mars, the scientists failed to question what led to life abandoning the planet – and whether the fate of Mars would ever be met by Earth.

Hassan turned towards the crew. ‘Folks,’ he began. ‘Do you think we’re doing the right thing?’

‘Too late to ask that question now, isn’t it?’ Riya responded while heating a sealed cup of frozen hot chocolate.

Hassan walked across to the circular lounge where everyone was. The rest of the crew were mostly disinterested in his question. Takehiro and Svetlana were busy beating their brains out over a game of Monopoly. The game proved ineffective in stimulating Oliver’s senses, who had conveniently passed out on the table next to the duo. Athena, undisturbed by the commotion, was nose-deep in a novel opposite the drama.

Hassan walked over to the center of the lounge and cleared his throat audibly. A couple of heads turned towards him. ‘Does Mars ring a bell?’

‘It does,’ replied Athena. ‘It rings a bell to a door that’s best kept closed.’

Hassan smiled. ‘How long?’

‘As long as possible, Hassan,’ Svetlana jutted in, her eyes still fixated on the board. ‘Riya’s right. It’s too late to bring this up now.’ Takehiro squinted his eyebrows, struggling to concentrate on the conversation while focusing on the game.

‘Honestly, I feel all of you are running away from this because it’s making you question your presence on the spacecraft right now.’

The crew filled Zeus II with a silence as potent as the vacuum outside.

No one spoke, until Takehiro let his cards fall onto the board, ceding the game.

‘I do not see how we’re wrong, Hassan,’ he said. ‘At this point in time, there is no better alternative to the oxygen crisis. Europa is our only hope right now.’

‘I’m not denying that.’

‘Are you implying that we abandon the mission and let everyone die?’

Hassan sighed. ‘I’m not saying that, Takehiro. Zeus I sent signals of life on Europa back to Earth. But they’re mere biosignatures at this point of time. It’s been years since we received the data without any concrete understanding of what those organisms are, how they behave and interact with each other, and how they manage to survive in the subsurface oceans of the moon. To dive into its ecosystem unsolicited could mean grave danger – not only for us but for the existing life forms as well.’

‘Hassan, we’re not off all the way to meddle with the life forms there,’ Svetlana snapped. ‘We’re just going there to collect microbial samples and leave.’

‘How are we collecting microbes without meddling with life forms?’

‘You’re just offended by the fact that most of the funding from your Mars mission was re-allocated for Zeus II,’ Svetlana hissed.

Hassan’s smile melted away to expose an expression as cold as steel. His wordlessness provoked Svetlana to attack him further.

‘You’re only a part of Zeus II because they had no place to put you after pulling the plug on your mission. Do you even want to be here? Do you even wish to see this succeed?’

‘Svetlana!’

Witnessing the situation escalate between the two, Athena interjected before Hassan could say any more.

‘Svetlana, I think it’s best to leave it at that. What happened on Mars wasn’t in any of our control. And for all that matters, never forget that you were on that mission as well. And so were Oliver and Riya. If anything at all, be grateful to Hassan that you’re a part of this crew.’

Svetlana rose from the table and flung her cards on the Monopoly board in disgust. ‘Grateful you say? Grateful indeed! I’m here stuck on this spacecraft for the next four and a half years, away from my daughter, away from my family.’

She looked at Hassan. ‘Of course, we’re not doing the right thing. And it’s not just about us meddling in an alien ecosystem. It’s us, astronauts and scientists – yet again – trying to clean up the mess that billions have created back home. And in this mess that we’ve created, we’re very likely to interfere in a foreign ecosystem and cause a rupture to it. This is the first time we’re on to something like this, but is there any guarantee this will not happen again? No. Because we never learn. And we never will. But I’d rather be here, even if I do feel trapped. I’d rather be here than someplace back on Earth, wondering if my child will ever live past the age of seven. Or if I’d have to witness the ones close to me die one by one in front of my eyes. I’d rather be here, trying to be of help, and not question the morality behind a mission that we have no choice but to execute.’

Nobody said a word. Svetlana had spewed a bitter truth that everyone had been trying to avoid, casting the entire crew into a rigid, immobile spell. Hassan’s eyes screamed confusion, for he was at a loss for knowing how to mend the wounds he had undone.

Svetlana had made a fair point. The onus was yet again on scientists to clean up the perfectly avoidable human mess of plastic disposal. Decades of ignorance had led to an accumulation of microplastics in the Earth’s oceans. The microplastics, harmful in general to the prevalent oceanic ecosystems through its adverse effects on marine wildlife and carcinogenic food chain biomagnifications, turned even more fatal when they led to a mutation in a virus that took on phytoplanktons in a murderous rampage.

Phytoplanktons have always been crucial to the persistence of life on the planet. They have been consistent providers of around 50 to 80 percent of the total oxygen on Earth – significantly outnumbering that produced by trees and plants around the globe. Phytoplanktons lay at the very base of the food chain, facilitating an important source of nutrition for all marine life. With the mutated virus – named R5T6 – gradually diminishing phytoplanktons across oceans, global oxygen levels dipped by half a percent, and the risk of extinction for all marine life sent all humans scurrying.

The fear was legitimate. Scientists began to cordon off oceans, creating artificial lakes uninfected by R5T6 in a frantic attempt to save marine (and human) life. The task was mammoth – to synthesize spaces across a planet draped in blue was close to impossible. Efforts were slow, and cans of oxygen became a commodity in obsessive demand (some even extravagantly flavored with customizable scents of lavender, rose, and jasmine). As these efforts took force, there was – for a while, for a very brief while – a bit of hope.

Things changed, and hopes came crashing down when dolphins started disappearing from the oceans. Paranoia set in yet again – stocks crashed, governments were blamed, propaganda ensued, doomsday clocks began ticking across the internet, all with their own renditions of Judgment Day. More and more people took to faith – questioning why God would do this to them while believing that God would indeed solve all of it. But despite the bells, the gongs, and the prayers, God had fallen silent.

When science finally came in with its answers, it stated that all of life on the planet had just over a decade before everything ended. Humanity turned to anarchy, and matters turned dire as each individual began to take to their own. In all of this mass helplessness, everyone hoped for a brief glimmer of hope from the skies above.

And in a very strange turn of events, the skies did respond with a glimmer of hope. Zeus I, an uncrewed spacecraft making the rounds of Jupiter’s moon Europa, sent a brief signal confirming biosignatures gathered from a watery plume that shot up from the moon’s subsurface oceans. The biosignatures strengthened as more and more data was gathered from other plumes that confirmed the existence of life on the planet. Programmed to collect samples and return to Earth, what happened next completely blew the minds of scientists who were able to study the extraterrestrial water a couple of years later.

The scientists found an alien microbe species in the sample with a curious trait – the ability to independently synthesize oxygen . Hope was reignited like a bright, burning flame in the dark, and efforts were initiated to make the microbes proliferate in oceans under a controlled environment. However, when everyone realized that the alien microbes multiplied way slower than the rate at which the phytoplankton were dying, an alternate solution had to be fast-tracked.

Confronting their own limitations, space agencies all across the world joined hands and came together to form what was known as the Global Space Alliance (G.S.A). Funds were pulled from existing missions, whose future lay uncertain. Teams were reassigned, and in less than a year, the Zeus II was built, utilizing every spacecraft prototype ever designed to build the largest ever, one that would take a human crew of six to facilitate the collection of the microbe-rich water directly from Europa’s subsurface ocean. With very limited scope for errors, complete automation of the process was ruled out. The risk was paramount, and it would take the crew five years to return with the microbes.

A lot could change in those five years. Oxygen levels could sink further. Half of marine life could become extinct. Humans could perish from the massive disruption in the food chain. And yet, they had to take a risk.

They had to take a risk for yet another crisis fabricated by humans. For a crisis that could very well repeat itself again – perhaps while donning a different yet familiar mask. Through a solution that entailed banking on the fact that an alien ecosystem would hopefully not be disrupted by their actions. A solution in an alien ecosystem, for which six astronauts from planet Earth were willingly disrupting their lives.

As Mars became a smaller distant sphere by the second, each knew nobody was wrong. Seven months into the mission, Hassan still felt that what they were doing would neither teach humanity a lesson nor be beneficial for the long-term benefit of the solar system. Svetlana was positioned correctly in her denial as well – for the truth was indeed too much to take in, and it was best to stay mum and keep going.

‘So please Hassan,’ Svetlana said, her voice pleading yet stern. ‘Please.’

She stormed off into the dormitories. Everyone sunk into a state of denial, choosing not to address what just took place before them. They sunk into their activities again – Athena got back to her book, Takehiro picked up the cards, and Riya finished her cup of hot chocolate in a swift gulp. Oliver, whose stupor had been decimated by the ongoing quarrel, looked over at Hassan. Hassan stared back at him, but he knew his mind was elsewhere. Hassan walked away from the lounge, resuming his position by the window side next to the glowing emblem of the Earth with the letters G.S.A. imprinted on them, staring into the darkness of outer space. Some things were better left to the abyss.

Riya’s shaky voice that broke the silence in the Pod. ‘The Pod to Zeus II. We have hit the subsurface ocean.’

Athena opened her eyes. The exteriors were as dark as they could be. Takehiro enabled a few systems to counter the tides in the subsurface ocean. As he pressed a few buttons on the Pod’s panel, the vehicle whirred itself into a small submarine, slowly beginning to turn towards the ocean bed that was nowhere to be seen.

‘I wonder if they can hear us,’ Riya said. There was no acknowledgment from Hassan’s side from Zeus II.

‘Riya,’ Takehiro said, distracting everyone from the contemplation. ‘Turn on the infrared feedback systems. Let’s see what we’re heading towards.’

Riya did as she was told. The surroundings were dark with no light seeping in. It was almost as if they never left the vacuum outside. As per G.S.A’s instructions, the crew decided against using the lights on the Pod, for it might startle the life forms.

The panel was dark, the screens on minimum brightness. The thermal cameras gave no significant infrared feedback and the altimeter had recalibrated itself, now displaying ’94 Kilometers’. The crew was fixated on spotting a more visible sign of the significant biosignature that had been observed by Zeus I. Their eyes were attentive to the red dot of light in the Pod, knowing it would turn green upon detection of the microbes.

The Pod kept creeping downward, and there were still no signs of life. Takehiro was beginning to grow impatient. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and his shoulders were terse again.

‘Takehiro,’ Athena whispered, her eyes moving swiftly between the panels and the screens.

There was a faint shimmer of orange being displayed from the thermal cameras. It seemed to have been dispersed unevenly, slowly rising upwards. There were different shapes and sizes, and it almost seemed like…

‘They’re disintegrated pieces of something,’ Riya said.

‘Maybe the source of the biosignatures,’ Athena offered. Takehiro agreed with her. ‘Riya,’ she asked, ‘Is there any way to make this thing move forward faster?’

‘Yes, Commander,’ Riya said, turning the thrusters to the very maximum level.

Takehiro’s eyes opened extra wide, as he tried to make sense of what he was witnessing. ‘Looks like someone tore a jellyfish apart,’ he commented, with a hint of offense at his own thoughts. As they moved forward, the remnants increased in number, till finally, a faint green shimmer was visible at a distance.

‘Are these the Europan life forms?’

Twenty two minutes had passed since the Pod had leaped into the ocean. 28 kilometers below the surface, the apparent biosignatures became more vivid, the faint light allowing the Pod to navigate.

In a crisp robotic bleep, the red dot that shone above their heads turned green. The microbial samples in the oceans had reached a sufficient quantity to be collected and carried back home.

‘Takehiro,’ commanded Athena. ‘Enable the sampling systems.’

Takehiro did as he was told. Through an analog lever on the minimalist panel, the Pod began collecting the water samples. Scientists back on Earth calculated that they would require samples from at least 50 gallons of water – a massive amount that would give them enough microbes to culture. There was an inbuilt system in place to ensure that the Pod wasn’t carrying the humongous amount of water back home – for the microbes would be separated whilst retaining the least amount of water in the Pod’s tanks.

The faint light from outside, however, kept getting brighter. It seemed to be coming from a thick structure that was covering the middle of the ocean infinitely on either end, consisting of small moving beings of varied shapes radiating green. The light became stronger as everyone glued their eyes to the panel, meters away from the floating beings blocking their way. The remnants were still emanating from the structure, losing the luminescence as they floated upward towards the pod.

‘Guys,’ Athena said. Everyone turned their heads towards her.

‘These are Europan life forms, for sure. But they’re dead.’

An eerie silence dawned over The Pod.

‘What do we do?’ Riya asked.

‘We wait.’

After the Pod had collected 3 samples of varying intensity, Athena took a call.

‘The Pod to Zeus II. Sample collection complete,’ she spoke into the transmitter. ‘We’re off to explore the subsurface ocean.’

As they tread further downwards, the green assumed an uncomfortable bright tone, merging with the red-turned-green-dot above their heads. The thermal cameras had gone bonkers, constantly depicting a screen of red. The Pod had no option but to wait and see how long this went on for.

Takehiro hypothesized that the structure would eventually come to an end. He said that these were apparently dead icelings which had floated up to a point where they had accumulated. The luminance could have possibly emerged from the fact that Europa was subject to immense radiation even below the crust – and there was something that made these creatures light up green as they perished. The topmost of these perished creatures disintegrated slowly, owing to tidal erosion.

Suddenly, just as The Pod crossed over 5 kilometers through the structure, Takehiro’s hypothesis came true. The thermal cameras stabilized into the darkness once more, the screens turning black as they escaped. Riya allowed the light to come in through the panels once more. But as she did so, there was a collective gasp let out by the crew.

Europa was no longer dark. It shone a dull green below the crust.

It was bizarre. It was unexpected. It was confusing. And what followed was even more unbelievable.

The infrared cameras started off with multiple small orange dots that emerged out of nowhere, moving slowly, occupying half the space on the screens. As they descended to 40 kilometers below, the dots became larger, redder, and began teeming more and more rapidly. The green light allowed the crew to make out small specs in the distance. At 45 kilometers through, they were practically amongst the dots – which had now become full-blown shapes – visible through the panels to the crew who had their jaws dropped in amazement.

Organisms of varied shapes and sizes, some closely resembling the ones back at home, swam right next to The Pod. Riya brought the vehicle to a halt for two reasons – one, so that they could pause for a moment and appreciate, and two, so that the crew could decide on its next course of action.

As they peeked out of the panels, they saw multicolored fish-like eels swimming in enormous schools, a smack of jellyfish-like creatures – only this time they didn’t seem to be floating aimlessly like the ones in the Earth’s oceans; through their transparent bells, the crew could see -

‘Brains?’ Athena blurted out. ‘The jellyfish here on Europa have brains?’

‘This could mean several things,’ Takehiro mused, excited by the finding. ‘One, there’s more oxygen in the water than we thought would be available, courtesy to this magic microbe. Two, the layer of dead icelings matter might have caused some sort of inexplicable obstruction to the collection of data for Zeus I. It showed definite changes in the levels of oxygen varying with the tides, but none of the evidence pointed towards levels that could trigger interesting evolution of this sort. Three…’

‘Three,’ Riya interjected, getting up. ‘I think it’s time we finally go out for that swim.’

Takehiro let off a laugh. ‘Sure,’ he said.

‘C’mon crew. We all did a brilliant job,’ Athena lauded her fellow astronauts. ‘Let’s go interact with some Europans!’

Everyone took turns to go to the depressurizing chamber one by one and set foot outside into the green waters. Everyone was equally flabbergasted, although Takehiro was probably too excited to get back to Zeus II and play with his newfound organisms.

Athena, Riya, and Takehiro spread out in three different directions, each tethered to the Pod by a strong metallic cable. The school of eels swam right past The Pod, coming in close contact with the three of them, curious but not hostile, with a fleeting span of attention. Athena pet one of them, trying to hold it in her hands, but it slithered right through them, moving on to Takehiro who tried to play with it in a similar manner.

‘It’s so intriguing,’ Takehiro’s voice could be heard through their spacesuits. ‘These organisms seem to be evolved versions of our oceanic species but must have such a different perception – ‘

‘What in the name of god is that,’ Riya said, part afraid, part astonished, part curious. A group of organisms – almost as tall as an average human but looking seemingly close to an organism that could be best described as a marine kangaroo – came swimming across to them. It was a small group of three, inquisitive to the commotion caused by the strangers.

One approached Riya, who without thinking twice caressed the region behind its gills, treating it like she would treat his pets back home. The marine kangaroo seemed to love it. ‘Hey guys, look, I just made my first friend here!’ she laughed.

The rest of the two approached Takehiro and Athena, rubbing their mouths over their suits, contemplating whether to nibble it or not. Athena laughed and caressed the marsupial-like marine, thinking about her labrador while doing so.

‘Athena, Takehiro,’ Riya said, visibly surprised. The two turned over in her direction. ‘This one’s carrying a mini marine marsupial!’ she exclaimed, pointing to a small head popping out of the marine kangaroo’s pouch. ‘That has to be the most adorable thing! An extraterrestrial baby!’

She bent over to have a closer look, but in the process of doing so, one of the limbs of the organism touched a switch on Riya’s arm, flipping it on and activating the flashlight atop her visor. The light flashed squarely onto the offspring, and Riya switched it off as soon as she realized what occurred. But it was too late.

As the light hit the offspring, almost all of a sudden, it floated out of its pouch. The small body seemed to have gone lifeless in an instant and was beginning to turn transparent. As soon as it lost all its color, it began to transmit the same green luminescence that they had seen in the structure up above – more intense towards the bottom, gradually fading out at the top. It floated further upward to eventually coalesce into the green skies.

‘No… this can’t be happening…’ Riya expressed.

The marine kangaroo, upon registering the events, turned hostile. It opened its mouth, and emanated a silent scream that only the other two of its companions could hear. The three marine marsupials ganged up on Riya, unleashed themselves on her body, tearing her spacesuit apart and mutilating it. Riya’s screams were muted as the organisms tore the systems apart. Athena and Takehiro watched in horror, as Riya enabled the emergency retraction and exit systems, drawing the two into The Pod and applying the emergency thrusters to zoom back to the surface through the green Europan sky beneath the crust.

Short Stories: Non-fiction

One entry was submitted for the non-fiction category, which was a white paper originally submitted to a call by The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine ( NASEM ) for the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032 . A copy of the white paper by author Flora Ardenghi Dutra is available at the NASEM site.

Updated: October 5, 2022

Moon and Back Essay Contest FAQ and Official Contest Rules

“girl scouts to the moon and back” essay faq and official contest rules.

• Brief description of the “Girl Scouts to the Moon and Back” essay contest:   Early in 2022, NASA plans to launch the Artemis I mission around the Moon and back to Earth. This is the first step toward NASA’s goal of sending the first woman and the first person of color to the Moon. To generate excitement for the mission, promote space science opportunities for girls, and elevate women in STEM, GSUSA, and NASA are giving Girl Scouts a chance to win a Space Science badge that’s been to the Moon on the Artemis I by entering the “Girl Scouts to the Moon and Back” essay contest. The contest will be open for submissions from 12 a.m. EST on January 18, 2022, to 11:59 p.m. EST on March 1, 2022. Fifteen winners from each Girl Scout level will be selected.  
• What is the relationship between GSUSA and NASA? Girl Scout Space Science badges were funded by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (through a multiparty collaboration led by the SETI Institute) in support of scientific and career explorations in the space field. The “Girl Scouts to the Moon and Back” essay contest continues the work of both organizations in support of promoting space science opportunities for girls and elevating women in STEM. 
• Who does the “Girl Scouts to the Moon and Back” essay contest address or expect to reach?  The essay contest is open to Girl Scout Daisies through Ambassadors.
• Marketing - How do customers learn of the essay contest? What marketing materials will be created? The contest is being promoted to councils in the Dec. 13, 2021, and Jan. 4, 2022, editions of Executive Essentials, and on Chatter in the beginning of January 2022. Also at the beginning of January 2022, GSUSA will share a content block with councils on gsConnect that they can use to promote the contest in their council newsletters. Additionally, anyone who signed up prior to January 18, 2022, to receive an update about the contest launch will receive an email alert on January 18, 2022. 
• Valuation - How does the essay contest benefit the customer?  The “Girl Scouts to the Moon and Back” essay contest will help promote space science opportunities for girls and elevate women in STEM.
• Contact – Who will answer customer questions, not covered in FAQs? Who will be the contact for escalated issues?   Beth Herr, [email protected] 
• Resources - Where are resources or materials? The essay contest website will go live on January 18, 2022, the day the contest opens. The website will include official contest rules, contest submission instructions, and a link to the contest submission form for each Girl Scout level.     
• How can my Girl Scout/troop participate? During the contest entry period—January 18, 2022, to March 1, 2022—Girl Scout Daisies through Ambassadors can go to the contest website, girlscouts.org/moonandback , to review the official contest rules, complete the free Space Science badge activity for their Girl Scout level, and submit a contest entry form, including a response to the appropriate essay question for their Girl Scout Level.
• Wasn’t the “Girl Scouts to the Moon and Back” essay contest supposed to happen in May 2021? What happened? GSUSA first announced at STEM Festival on April 17, 2021, that the essay contest would be open for submissions from May 3 to June 15, 2021. Soon after our announcement, we learned that a project like NASA’s Artemis I mission takes a lot of preparation. Think about how carefully you need to pack up for a Girl Scout campout or hike, figuring out the best way to fit all the items you need into one bag. Well, NASA needs to load up the Artemis I just as carefully, precisely calculating the weight of all the cargo going on board. The essay contest will now launch on January 18, 2022, and run for six weeks, until March 1, 2022. 
• Who will judge the essay submissions?  Essay submissions will be reviewed by a volunteer panel of judges that includes space science professionals.  
• How will essay submissions be judged? Essays will be judged relative only to essays from the same Girl Scout level, based on how well they address the question, how original and creative they are, and how well-crafted they are overall. 
• How many rounds of judging will there be? There will be two rounds of judging. In the first round, judges will narrow down to the top 30 submissions from each Girl Scout level. In the second round, 15 winning submissions will be chosen from each level. 
• When will the winners be announced?  Winners will be notified by email and announced on the essay contest website in spring 2022.  
• When and how will contest winners receive their prize?  GSUSA will mail winners their prize in the summer of 2022. Note that the NASA Artemis I mission launch is subject to change and could affect prize availability.

NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN THIS CONTEST. A PURCHASE OR PAYMENT WILL NOT INCREASE OR IMPROVE CHANCES OF WINNING. INTERNET ACCESS REQUIRED. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

1. Contest Description

Girls Scouts of the USA (“Sponsor” or “GSUSA”), the sole sponsor of the Girl Scouts to the Moon and Back Essay Contest (“Contest”), invites eligible individuals (“Entrants”) to enter the Contest by writing an essay (“Essay”) responsive to the appropriate prompt (“Prompt”) assigned to the Entrant’s Girl Scout level: Girl Scout Daisies, Girl Scout Brownies, Girl Scout Juniors, Girl Scout Cadettes, Girl Scout Seniors, or Girl Scout Ambassadors (each a “Girl Scout Level”).

Girl Scout Daisies Prompt (25 words or fewer) : Imagine you are going on a mission to the moon. What would you take with you and why?

Girl Scout Brownies/Juniors Prompt (75 words or fewer) : Imagine you are the first kid ever sent on a mission to space. Where would you want to go and what would you do there?

Cadettes/Seniors/Ambassadors Prompt (150 words or fewer) : Imagine you are on a space mission and are put in charge of building a new community on another planet. What values would you work to instill in this community and why?

Sponsor will select ninety (90) winners (the “Prize Winners”), fifteen (15) for each Girl Scout Level, from among the Entrants who have provided a complete Submission and who have complied with all of the terms and conditions of these Girl Scouts to the Moon and Back Essay Contest official contest rules (the “Official Contest Rules”).

2. Contest Period

The Contest begins on January 18, 2022, at 12:00 a.m. ET and ends on March 1, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. ET (“Contest Period”). Sponsor's clock is the official clock and sole determinant for the purposes of a valid entry in the Contest.

3. Eligibility

This Contest is open only to Girl Scouts who: (a) have completed the free Space Science Badge activity for their Girl Scout Level on Girl Scouts at Home (available at https://www.girlscouts.org/moonandback  prior to entering a Submission, (b) are legal residents of one of the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico (including residents currently residing in overseas military installations with a valid APO/FPO mailing address), and (c) submit a valid Submission together with a parent or legal guardian (either a “Guardian”) who is 18 years old or older as of the date of entry.

If a potential Prize Winner is under 18 years old (or under 19 years old in Nebraska and Alabama), she must have written approval of a Guardian to enter the Contest and claim the Prize, which includes the Prize Winners’ Guardian providing permission to use the Submission and providing a publicity release consistent with Sections 9, 10 and 11 of these Official Contest Rules.

An Entrant will not be officially declared a Prize Winner unless and until she and her Guardian have signed all required permissions, releases, and other documentation. Entrants and Guardians may be required to provide personal information to receive a Prize.

The Contest is void where prohibited by law. The Contest is not open to any employees, directors, or officers of Sponsor, its subsidiaries, or affiliated councils, or the immediate family members (defined as spouse, parent, child, sibling, and their respective spouses, regardless of where they live) and household members (whether related or not) of such employees. The Official Contest Rules are subject to modification by GSUSA at its sole discretion.

4. How to Enter

To enter the Contest, Entrants must:

a. Review these Official Contest Rules, complete the free Space Science Badge activity for their age level, and access Submission instructions here: https://www.girlscouts.org/moonandback .

b. Write an Essay responsive to the appropriate Prompt for Entrant’s Girl Scout Level, which conforms to the Word Limit and all other Submission Guidelines as defined below in Section 5;

c. Submit a complete Submission at https://www.girlscouts.org/moonandback during the Contest Period, including:

i. Confirmation that Entrant has completed the free Space Science Badge activity for her Girl Scout Level on Girl Scouts at Home (available at https://www.girlscouts.org/moonandback )

ii. Guardian’s consent to Entrant’s participation if entrant is under eighteen (18) years of age (“Consent”);

iii. Entrant’s Essay; and

iv. A clear and focused photo of only the Entrant in portrait form.

Entrants who are 18 years or older do not need a Guardian’s Consent to enter the Contest. Entrant must complete the entire Submission at the time of entry. There will not be an opportunity for Entrant to save her work and finish the Submission later. Sponsor is not responsible for retrieving any incomplete or lost responses.

If a Submission does not meet all Submission Guidelines, it will be removed from the pool of eligible entries.

THERE IS A LIMIT OF ONE (1) SUBMISSION PER ENTRANT. If it is discovered that any Entrant has attempted to: (a) submit more than one (1) Submission and/or (b) use (or attempt to use) multiple or fraudulent names, identities and/or more than one (1) email address to enter the Contest, Sponsor may disqualify Entrant from the Contest.

Except as otherwise provided herein with respect to the Submission, any other attempted form of online entry is void and will not be accepted. Entrant, or anyone acting on behalf of Entrant, may not offer prizes, awards, gifts, money or consideration of any kind in exchange for points in the scoring of the Contest, and Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any Entrant it believes, in Sponsor's sole discretion, to be engaging in such activity. By submitting a Submission, Entrant (and, if a minor, her Guardian) hereby agrees to the terms and conditions set forth in these Official Contest Rules.

All Submissions are subject to verification. Proof of receipt does not constitute proof of eligibility for the Contest. Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to require proof of identity and/or eligibility (in a form acceptable to Sponsor, including, without limitation, government issued photo identification to participate in this Contest and/or be awarded a prize. Failure to provide such proof to the satisfaction of Sponsor in a timely manner may result in disqualification.

5. Submission Guidelines

SPONSOR, IN ITS SOLE DISCRETION, MAY REMOVE ANY SUBMISSION AND DISQUALIFY ANY ENTRANT FROM A CONTEST IF IT BELIEVES, IN ITS SOLE DISCRETION THAT THE SUBMISSION FAILS TO CONFORM TO ALL GUIDELINES AND RESTRICTIONS SET FORTH IN THESE OFFICIAL CONTEST RULES (THE “SUBMISSION GUIDELINES”) AND/OR ANY OTHER PROVISION OF THESE OFFICIAL CONTEST RULES.

Submissions must conform, without limitation, to the following Submission Guidelines:

a. Essays must be the original work of the Entrant and must not have won previous awards or have been published or publicly displayed previously. If an Essay or any other component of a Submission was created by a person other than the Entrant (or includes any other material or elements not owned by the Entrant and/or subject to rights of third parties), then the Entrant will be disqualified as the Submission is not the original work of the Entrant.

b. Submissions must not infringe upon any third party’s rights, including, but not limited to, privacy, publicity and intellectual property rights, and may not include anything in which another person or entity owns any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, moral right, or other proprietary right (or where a recognizable product that is protectable by copyright or trademark appears).

c. Essays must be (i) in English; (ii) responsive to the appropriate Prompt for the Entrant’s Girl Scout Level; and (iii) not exceed the Word Limit for the Entrant’s Girl Scout Level, which are as follows: no more than 25 words for Girl Scout Daisies; no more than 75 words for Girl Scout Brownies and Girl Scout Juniors; and no more than 150 words for Girl Scout Cadettes, Girl Scout Seniors, and Girl Scout Ambassadors.

d. Essays may not include Entrant’s name, or the names of any other real people (other than those of significant figures). Essays may reference names of significant figures if necessary for Entrant to factually explain her Essay. Essays may include fictional first names, but not fictional last names. If Sponsor reasonably believes that an Essay contains the name of an actual person, Sponsor reserves the right to fictionalize names for the purposes of Prize Winner selection.

e. The Submission as a whole must not include any identifiable information of a third party such as name, address, phone number or email address; contain URLs that link to external sites, files or videos such as Google Docs or YouTube; disparage Sponsor or any other person or party; contain advertising or solicitations; contain text, images or artwork not created by Entrant, or text, images, or artwork over which Entrant does not have specific rights to submit in the Contest; Contain material that Sponsor deems to be inappropriate, indecent, obscene, hateful, tortuous, defamatory, slanderous, or libelous; contain swear words or other coarse language; contain material that Sponsor deems to promote cruelty, bigotry, racism, hatred or harm against any animal, group or individual or to promote discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age; include any personal information, name, or likeness, of any person under the age of 13 unless that person’s Guardian has executed a written consent; or contain material that is unlawful, in violation of, or contrary to the laws or regulations in any jurisdiction where Submission is created.

f. Adults may assist younger Entrants with typing the online Submission, but the Essay and must be the Entrant’s own creative, original work.

By submitting the Essay, Entrants (and Guardians if applicable) are authorizing use of the Essay in Sponsor promotional materials in accordance with Sections 9 and 10 of these Official Contest Rules, without compensation to Entrant, or any further permission, or notification, unless prohibited by law.

Sponsor reserves the right to remove personally identifiable information from an Essay, and reserves the right but not the obligation, in their sole discretion, to edit or modify any Entrant’s Submission (or a component thereof), or to request an Entrant to modify, edit and/or re-submit his or her Submission (or a component thereof), to ensure that the Submission complies with the Privacy Policy (as defined below in Section 10), these Official Contest Rules, or for any other reason.

BY PARTICIPATING IN THE CONTEST, ENTRANT WARRANTS AND REPRESENTS THAT: (I) HER SUBMISSION (AND EACH COMPONENT THEREOF) IS ORIGINAL TO HER; AND (II) ENTRANT HAS ALL OTHER RIGHTS, LICENSES, PERMISSIONS AND CONSENTS NECESSARY TO THE SUBMISSION AND ITS ENTRY INTO THE CONTEST, TO GRANT SPONSOR THE WORLDWIDE, IRREVOCABLE, AND UNRESTRICTED RIGHT AND LICENSE TO ADAPT, PUBLISH, USE, EDIT, AND/OR MODIFY THE SUBMISSION (AND EACH COMPONENT THEREOF) IN ANY WAY, AND THAT THE SUBMISSION (AND EACH INDIVIDUAL COMPONENT THEREOF) COMPLIES WITH ALL CONDITIONS STATED IN THESE OFFICIAL CONTEST RULES.

6. Winner Determination

Sponsor will appoint a slate of volunteers (the “Contest Judges”) to judge eligible Essays on the basis of the weighted criteria (“Criteria”) included in this Section 6 of the Official Contest Rules. All Essay entries will be presented to the Contest Judges in the same format and, in accordance with the Submission Guidelines in Section 5, above, exclude all personal information. Contest Judges will judge each Essay only against other Essays for the same Girl Scout Level and assign each eligible Essay a score (the “Score”) based on the Criteria in their sole and absolute discretion.

There will be two rounds of judging. In the first round (the “First Round”), Contest Judges will determine the thirty (30) highest-Scored Essays for each Girl Scout Level (the “Semifinalist Essays”). In the second round (the “Semifinals”), when Contest Judges will include space science professionals and others, Contest Judges will assign a Score for each of the thirty (30) Semifinalist Essays to determine the fifteen (15) highest-Scored Essays for each Girl Scout Level. The Entrants who submitted the fifteen (15) highest-Scored Essays as Scored in the Semifinals will be the potential Contest Winners.

In the event of any tie between two or more Essays for the same Girl Scout Level in either the First Round or the Semifinals, the Entrant who submitted an Essay with a higher Score in Criteria 2 will be given priority. If there is still a tie, the Entrant who submitted an Essay with a higher Score in Criteria 3 will be given priority.

All decisions of Sponsor and Contest Judges are final and binding.

7. Prize and Approximate Retail Value

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YOUR CHALLENGE IS:

Imagine leading a one-week expedition on the moon and write an essay that tells nasa all about it, challenge closed, ** march 23 virtual astronaut event at 1pm et ** https://youtu.be/7w4v5tymyce.

• Grades K-4: Essay, up to 100 words
• Grades 5-8: Essay, up to 200 words
• Grades 9-12: Essay, up to 300 words
• Please DO NOT put your name in your entry
• For all entry requirements and judging criteria please read the RULES

DATES / JUDGING CRITERIA / PRIZES

Who can enter, judging criteria, how to enter.

• Trip to Artemis-1 Launch
• Trip to NASA's Johnson Space Center
• Artemis Prize Pack & 4 Virtual Artemis Explorer Sessions with NASA
• Trip to the Artemis-1 Launch

The National K-4th Grade winner receives a family trip to NASA's Kennedy Space Center to watch the Artemis-1 launch

Three K-4th Grade finalists get a trip for two to NASA's Johnson Space Center to learn about Moon Exploration

One K-4th Grade semifinalist per state will get an Artemis Prize Pack and 4 virtual Artemis Explorer sessions with NASA

The National 5th-8th Grade winner receives a family trip to NASA's Kennedy Space Center to watch the Artemis-1 launch

Three 5th-8th Grade finalists get a trip for two to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to learn about Moon Exploration

One 5th-8th Grade semifinalist per state will get an Artemis Prize Pack and 4 virtual Artemis Explorer Sessions with NASA

The National 9th-12th Grade winner receives a family trip to NASA's Kennedy Space Center to watch the Artemis-1 launch

Three 9th-12th Grade finalists get a trip for two to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to learn about Moon Exploration

One 9th-12th Grade semifinalist per state will get an Artemis Prize Pack and 4 virtual Artemis Explorer Sessions with NASA

Dive Into The Challenge

Lesson plan details and challenge tips, 1. links & lessons, 2. brainstorm & design, learn about the challenge, links & lessons.

Brainstorm & Design

Brainstorming idea, the moon's south pole.

Your pod will spend 7 days exploring the lunar South Pole so it's important to know your environment! The Moon does not have an atmosphere like Earth, which means that there is no air to breathe. There is also no protection from the sun and its radiation, so midday temperatures can reach 127°C (hotter than boiling water) whereas at night they can fall as low as -173°C. So you must wear a spacesuit at all times when you are outside your habitat. Also, don’t forget that the moon has about 1/6 th  the amount of gravity as we have here on Earth, so it will feel like you’re walking on a trampoline!

The Moon's Craters

Large craters at the Moon's South Pole are home to "permanently shadowed regions" that never see sunlight. Robotic missions like the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter have revealed that these spots of total darkness may contain patches of frost or ice. Could the ice be melted and filtered for drinking water? Or, could it be broken down into its elements (hydrogen and oxygen) to create breathable air for your spacesuits or rocket fuel to get back home? Many of the crater rims will have near constant sunlight, where you could harvest solar energy to power your rover habitat.

Expedition Goals

What will define your expedition? How will your crew’s time on the Moon be a building block for the future? What do you hope to learn or accomplish in one week? Will you be building a structure? Conducting an experiment? Exploring a new area? Making a machine? Mining minerals? Harvesting water? Starting a lunar farm? Technology will play a major role in all aspects of your journey. But don’t forget, this is human exploration. Your pod must always thrive and survive – both physically and mentally.

Personality Traits

As the leader of the expedition, think about what types of skills you would bring to the team. What are the kinds of personalities or character traits that you would want your crewmates to have? Should they have similar personalities or different? There will be times to relax, laugh, and be silly – just like if you were camping here on Earth. But there will also be extreme situations that may test character - from staying calm while solving a problem to being brave in the face of fear or encouraging others to persevere. 

Work Skills

Think about the goals of your expedition and the type of skills that your crew would need for success. Would you work together on a single goal or divide and conquer different tasks? Also, you are 250,000 miles from Earth, so what skills would your pod need to deal with the unexpected, such as if something breaks? Consider how technology may reduce the number of human skills that are needed. For example, do you need a doctor to do daily health check-ups or will you rely on biometric sensors? Or both! Lastly, how will you share your adventure with the billions of people back on Earth cheering you on? Communication is a skill too.

Representing Humanity

In the history of our world, there have been approximately 570 people that have traveled to space – ever. And when astronauts do travel to space, all eyes are on them. Astronauts inspire not only a nation, but a world. They represent humanity in our quest to explore and understand more about our universe and they become role models for kids across the globe. How will that factor into your crew choices?

Sustainable Technologies

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is the most powerful rocket in the world, but it is still limited in how many crew members and how much gear it can bring. What resources ON the Moon might you be able to incorporate into your plan? Similar too how we use water, solar power and raw materials here our Earth, the Moon has resources on its surface (and subsurface!) that may play a role in your mission – from lunar soil to mining metals to harvesting ice. Your pod is only there for one -week, but future astronauts that stay on the Moon for longer durations will need to survive using more than what they bring. Bringing 6 months' worth of water and frozen burritos is HEAVY, and kind of ridiculous, so start thinking and building sustainably for future crews! Maybe your idea will improve life here on Earth too!

Robotic Explorers

NASA has set their sights on exploring the surface of the Moon with human and robotic explorers. Much like NASA has used rovers to study Mars, they plan to do the same on the Moon. Imagine exploring the Moon with robotic helpers. It’s not science fiction anymore, NASA is making it science fact! How could robotic explorers be useful to your crew and future crews?   What information do you hope to investigate or discover as you study different areas of the lunar South Pole? What new knowledge might you learn about the Moon, Earth, and our origins in the solar system?

Going the Distance

Walking is great. It’s healthy. It’s invigorating. But don’t forget that you are in a spacesuit that’s not quite as comfy as spandex. What if you wanted to explore an area of the moon one mile away where no one has been before? How would you get there? What mobility or transport vehicles might help you or future crews to move around? How will they be powered? Keep in mind there is sun on the crater rims the Moon’s polar mountain peaks (crater rims and ridges), but once you move off those peaks, you are in the crater you will have dark days and dark nights.  

Getting There

To be clear, your essay should be about your time ON the Moon. Nonetheless, we wanted to take a moment to share how NASA’s Artemis program plans to take future astronauts, like you,   TO the Moon. A crew of astronauts will ride in the Orion spacecraft, which will sit atop the powerful Space Launch System (SLS) Rocket that travels at speeds up to 24,500 mph. The Orion capsule will dock with an orbiting lunar outpost called “Gateway”. The astronauts will board Gateway as a staging point (it’s kind of like changing planes at an airport, but in space, and orbiting the Moon). Then when the moment is right, astronauts will use lunar landers to travel to the Moon's surface. Three companies are working hard at work designing lunar landers now, including Blue Origin, SpaceX, and Dynetics. And that massive SLS rocket? The winners of this contest will get to watch its first Artemis – 1 launch, so get creative and start writing now!  J

Your Imagination

NASA has been hard at work developing a plan to go back to the moon, you can read all about it here Artemis Program , but there is no idea too big or too small, or invention too crazy or far-fetched when it comes to space exploration. We can’t wait to hear how you would explore the Moon!

Digital Tools

Build & iterate, educator tools, launching the innovators of tomorrow.

The Artemis Moon Pod Essay Contest is presented in support of NASA's Artemis program. The student challenge is part of NASA's efforts to engage the public in its missions to the Moon and Mars. NASA is returning to the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new generation. Working with its partners throughout the Artemis program, the agency will fine-tune precision landing technologies and develop new mobility capabilities that allow robots and crew to travel greater distances and explore new regions of the Moon. On the surface, the agency has proposed building a new habitat and rovers, testing new power systems and much more to get ready for human exploration of Mars. Charged with returning to the Moon in the next four years, NASA’s Artemis program will reveal new knowledge about the Moon, Earth, and our origins in the solar system.

In Support of NASA's Artemis Program

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Winners of NASA essay contest will witness 1st Artemis deep space exploration launch in 2021

NASA's Space Launch System rocket will launch with Orion atop it from Launch Complex 39B at NASA's modernized spaceport at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA)

NASA is offering three lucky students a chance to win an all expenses paid trip to the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida to watch the Artemis 1 launch, which is scheduled for fall 2021.

The Artemis 1 mission will be “the first in a series of increasingly complex missions,” NASA said in a statement.

“Artemis I will be an uncrewed flight test that will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration, and demonstrate our commitment and capability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond,” the agency added.

The Artemis Moon Pod Essay Contest was created by a joint effort between Future Engineers and NASA to challenge students to write about “leading a one-week expedition at the Moon’s South Pole,” according to the contest rules.

“Write an essay that tells us about the types of skills, attributes, and/or personality traits that you would want your Moon Pod crew to have and why. How many would be in your pod? Also describe one machine, robot, or technology that you would leave on the Moon to help future astronauts explore,” the rules state.

There will be three separate contest categories based on grade level: Grades K-4; Grades 5-8; and Grades 9-12. Entries may only be submitted by students who are legal residents in the United States.

One specific stipulation that the rules noted was that anyone who is related to or lives within the same household as an employee at NASA or Future Engineers will not be allowed to enter the essay contest.

All contestants will be required to submit an essay which should include a title that is no more than 75 characters and a predetermined word count, which differs for each grade category:

• Grades K-4: Maximum 100 words
• Grades 5-8: Maximum 200 words
• Grades 9-12: Maximum 300 words

RELATED:  NASA starts assembling Artemis Space Launch System rocket

All entries must be received by Dec. 17, 2020, at no later than 11:59 p.m. PT. The judging criteria will be four-fold:

• “Your Moon Pod crew’s ability to address the challenges and opportunities of exploring the Moon,” which can earn up to 40 points.
• “Usefulness of your proposed science or technology left on the moon,” which can earn up to 40 points.
• “Originality and innovation of the ideas presented,” which is worth 10 points,.
• “Quality of the essay,” which is worth another 10 points.

Another important condition that was highlighted in the contest rules is that entrants must not reveal their names or addresses for privacy reasons.

“Don’t write your name, or anyone else’s name (eg. your friend, teacher, or parent) in your essay or title,” the contest rules state. “Don’t submit an address, email address, phone number, or any combination of information that could be used to identify or contact a student.”

There will potentially be a total of 168 winners consisting of 156 semifinalist winners who are eligible to win an Artemis prize pack with a retail value of $375, as well as four free invitations to Artemis Explorer virtual sessions with NASA experts.

NASA: Go Forward to the Moon

NASA is going to the Moon and on to Mars, in a measured, sustainable way. Working with U.S. companies and international partners, NASA will push the boundaries of human exploration forward to the Moon. (Source: NASA)

Nine finalists winners will receive a three day, two night all expenses paid roundtrip to the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX, “to learn about Artemis and moon exploration.” Winners can bring one parent as a guardian for the trip.

The three grand prize winners will get a three day, two night all expenses paid roundtrip to Kennedy Space Center where each winner, as well as up to three additional family members, will get to watch the Artemis 1 launch into space.

Semifinalists will be announced on Mar. 17, 2021, finalists will be announced on April 7, 2021, a finalist interview will be conducted on April 29, 2021, and winners will be announced on May 19, 2021.

For more detailed information, visit futureengineers.org.

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Nasa names finalists of the power to explore challenge.

Kristin Jansen

Public affairs specialist, grades 9-12, nasa has selected the nine finalists of the power to explore challenge, a national competition for k-12 students featuring the enabling power of radioisotopes..

NASA selected nine finalists out of the 45 semifinalist student essays in the Power to Explore Challenge, a national competition for K-12 students featuring the enabling power of radioisotopes. Contestants were challenged to explore how NASA has powered some of its most famous science missions and to dream up how their personal “super power” would energize their success on their own radioisotope-powered science mission.

The competition asked students to learn about NASA’s Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS), a type of “nuclear battery” that the agency uses to explore some of the most extreme destinations in our solar system and beyond. As cities across the United States experience a total solar eclipse, we experience first hand a momentary glimpse into what life would be like without sunlight. This draws attention to how NASA can power missions at destinations that cannot rely on the energy of the Sun, such as deep craters on the Moon and deep space exploration. In 250 words or less, students wrote about a mission of their own enabled by these space power systems and described their own power to achieve their mission goals.

The Power to Explore Challenge offered students the opportunity to learn more about these reliable power systems, celebrate their own strengths, and interact with NASA’s diverse workforce. This year’s contest received 1,787 submitted entries from 48 states and Puerto Rico.

"The RPS Program is so impressed by the ideas and quality of writing that come forth from essays submitted to NASA’s Power to Explore Challenge

Carl Sandifer

Manager, Radioisotope Power Systems Program

“The RPS Program is so impressed by the ideas and quality of writing that come forth from essays submitted to NASA’s Power to Explore Challenge,” said Carl Sandifer, NASA’s manager for the Radioisotope Power Systems Program in Cleveland. “We would like to congratulate the finalists, and we look forward to welcoming the winners to NASA’s Glenn Research Center this summer.”

Entries were split into three categories: grades K-4, 5-8, and 9-12. Every student who submitted an entry received a digital certificate and an invitation to the Power Up virtual event that announced the semifinalists. Students learned about what powers the NASA workforce to dream big and work together to explore.

Three national finalists in each grade category (nine finalists total) have been selected. In addition to receiving a NASA RPS prize pack, these participants will be invited to an exclusive virtual meeting with a NASA engineer or scientist to talk about their missions and have their space exploration questions answered. Winners will be announced on April 17.

• Katerine Leon, Long Beach, CA
• Rainie Lin, Lexington, KY
• Zachary Tolchin, Guilford, CT
• Aadya Karthik, Redmond, WA
• Andrew Tavares, Bridgewater, MA
• Sara Wang, Henderson, NV
• Thomas Liu, Ridgewood, NJ
• Madeline Male, Fairway, KS
• Kailey Thomas, Las Vegas, NV

About the Challenge

The challenge is funded by the Radioisotope Power Systems Program Office in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and administered by Future Engineers under the NASA Open Innovation Services 2 contract. This contract is managed by the NASA Tournament Lab, a part of the Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing Program in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.

Kristin Jansen NASA’s Glenn Research Center

Naming Contest Winners at Kennedy Space Center

Students Alex Mather, at left, and Vaneeza Rupani, stand near the countdown clock at the News Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 28, 2020.

These students were among 28,000 who participated in a nationwide essay contest to name the Mars 2020 rover.

Alex was selected to name the Perseverance rover, and Vaneeza named the Ingenuity helicopter.

The rover is scheduled to launch July 30, on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The rover is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. The rover will search for habitable conditions in the ancient past and signs of past microbial life on Mars. The Launch Services Program at Kennedy is responsible for launch management.

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In honor of the first giant leap and those to come, today's aspiring scientists and engineers -- JPL interns -- share the moments that inspire them. Share your own #InspiredBy stories with NASAJPL Edu on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/NASAJPLEdu">Facebook</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.twitter.com/nasajpl_edu">Twitter</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.instagram.com/nasajpl_edu">Instagram</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.vine.co/nasajpl_edu">Vine</a> using the hashtag #InspiredBy.<br>

Get advice from scientists, engineers and educators about what it takes to work in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields and how to get a foot in the door. <br>

He's already been a classical violinist and a professional snowboarder. Now mechanical/aerospace engineering student and Montana-native Andrew Crawford is learning what it's like to intern at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He'll share his experiences as an intern in the Deep Space Network's Antenna Mechanical group and the stories of the fascinating people he encounters.

Find out what's new in the Education Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and learn about the latest initiatives to inspire students and educators through NASA science, technology, engineering and mathematics. <br>

Meet scientists, engineers and others working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, learn what they do and see how to put yourself on a pathway to these stellar careers!

Former interns share stories about how their experiences at NASA centers set them on pathways to stellar careers. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/intern">Learn more about JPL internships and fellowships</a><br>

Hear stories from interns pushing the boundaries of space exploration and science at the leading center for robotic exploration of the solar system, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/intern">Learn more about JPL Internships and Fellowships</a><br>

Discover news, events and resources from <a target="_blank" href="https://informal.jpl.nasa.gov/museum/">NASA's Museum Alliance</a> and its community of informal educators using the excitement of space exploration and scientific discovery to inspire new generations.<br>

<p>Discover opportunities to engage students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) with lessons and resources inspired by the latest happenings at NASA.</p> <p><a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/teachable-moments/" target="_blank" style="font-weight: bold;">› Learn more and explore the collection</a></p> <br>

Meet real teachers and find out how they are using STEM education resources from JPL to get creative ideas for your classroom.

In honor of Women's History Month, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory invited high school students to interview inspirational women working at the lab in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. <br>

Edu News | December 5, 2019

Nasa scientist for a day essay contest goes far out in 2020.

NASA's Scientist for a Day Essay Contest is back for its 15th year, inviting students in grades 5 through 12 to investigate three distant worlds and write an essay about one they would want to explore further.

The worlds chosen for this year's contest are some of the most mysterious and distant in our solar system: Uranus' moon Miranda , Neptune's moon Triton and Pluto's moon Charon . Each has been visited by spacecraft during a single, brief flyby. NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Miranda and Triton in the 1980s, and the New Horizons spacecraft flew by Charon in 2015. All three flybys provided the only up-close – and stunning – images we have of these worlds.

To enter the contest, which is hosted in the U.S. and more than a dozen countries, students must submit an essay of up to 500 words explaining why they would want to send a spacecraft to explore the world of their choosing. Essays can also be submitted by teams of up to four students.

Winning essays will be chosen for each topic and grade group (5 to 6, 7 to 8 and 9 to 12) and featured on the NASA Solar System Exploration website . Additionally, U.S. contest winners and their classes will have the chance to participate in a video conference or teleconference with NASA.

Entries for the U.S. contest are due Feb. 20, 2020, on the NASA Scientist for a Day website . (Deadlines for the international contests may vary by host country.) Visit the website for more information, including rules, international contest details and past winners.

For teachers interested in using the contest as a classroom assignment, learn more here . Plus, explore these standards-aligned lessons and activities to get students engaged in space travel and planetary science:

Art and the Cosmic Connection

Students use art to describe and recognize the geology on planetary surfaces.

Grades K-12

Time 1-2 hrs

Solar System Bead Activity

Students create a scale model of the solar system using beads and string.

Time 30 mins - 1 hr

Planetary Poetry

In this cross-curricular STEM and language arts lesson, students learn about planets, stars and space missions and write STEM-inspired poetry to share their knowledge of or inspiration about these topics.

Grades 2-12

Time 1 - 2 hrs

*NEW* Planetary Travel Time

Students will compute the approximate travel time to planets in the solar system using different modes of transportation.

Sizing Up Pluto

Using measurements taken by the New Horizons spacecraft as it flew by Pluto in July 2015, students practice their math skills in a real-world application and see how new data can change scientific understanding.

Grades 4-12

Solar System Scroll

Students predict the scale of our solar system and the distance between planets, then check their answers using fractions.

Time < 30 mins

*NEW* Create a Solar System Scale Model With Spreadsheets

In this activity, students use spreadsheet software and their knowledge of scale, proportion and ratios to develop a solar system model that fits on a playground.

Grades 5-12

Using Light to Study Planets

Students build a spectrometer using basic materials as a model for how NASA uses spectroscopy to determine the nature of elements found on Earth and other planets.

Grades 6-11

Time > 2 hrs

*NEW* Kinesthetic Radial Model of the Solar System

Students model the position of the planets around the Sun and then model viewing them from Earth on any given date.

Dancing Uranus

In the dance of our solar system, one planet has moves like no other: Uranus. Find out how the planet's tilt puts it in a league all its own.

Subject Science

Ocean Worlds

Where might oceans – and living things – exist beyond Earth? Scientists have their eyes on these places in our own solar system.

Type Slideshow

TAGS: K-12 Education , Teachers , Educators , Students , Contests , Competitions , Essay , Language Arts , Science , Planets , Solar System , Moons

Kim Orr , Web Producer, NASA-JPL Education Office

Kim Orr is a web and content producer for the Education Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Her pastimes are laughing and going on Indiana Jones style adventures.

Edu News | October 22, 2019

Nasa essay contest winner: naming curiosity mars rover 'changed my life'.

Students have just over one week more to enter NASA’s Name the Rover Essay Contest . While they put the finishing touches on their essays (due Nov. 1, 2019), meet the most recent naming contest winner, Clara Ma. Find out what Ma is up to more than 10 years after submitting her winning name for the Mars rover now known as Curiosity and why she says the experience changed her life.

› Read more on JPL News

› find related resources for educators.

TAGS: Curiosity , Rover , Contest , Mars , Students , K-12 , Teachers , Language Arts , Essay , Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

Edu News | August 28, 2019

Students invited to name nasa’s next mars rover.

By Lyle Tavernier

NASA is inviting students to help name its next Mars rover! Set to launch from Florida in the summer of 2020, NASA’s fifth rover to visit the Red Planet is designed to study past environments capable of supporting life, seek signs of ancient microbial life, collect rock and soil samples for a possible future return to Earth, and test technologies that could produce oxygen from the Martian atmosphere for use by humans one day. But before it can do that, it needs a name.

Following in the tracks of NASA’s four previous Mars rovers, the agency is asking students to suggest a name. The first Mars rover, which landed in 1997, was called the Microrover Flight Experiment until a 12-year old student from Connecticut suggested the name Sojourner, in honor of abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth. In 2004, a third-grade student from Arizona named NASA’s twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Curiosity, which landed in 2012 and is the most recent rover to visit Mars, was named by a sixth-grade student in Kansas.

To enter the Name the Rover Essay Contest , individual students must submit an essay of up to 150 words by Nov. 1, 2019. In their essay, students will need to propose the name they think best suits the rover and explain their reasoning. Judges will select three finalists (one each from grades K-4, 5-8 and 9-12) from every state and U.S. territory. From there, judges will narrow down the finalists further before they select a final name in the spring of 2020.

Mars Lessons

Explore standards-aligned lessons for students that get them exploring Mars science, robotics and more.

So what makes a good name? There are lots of ways to become inspired, but students should start by learning about the rover as well as the Red Planet and why we explore . But they shouldn’t stop there. There are many ways to spark ideas from students, including writing planetary poetry , making cosmic art , and having them build rovers of their own. Get students thinking and writing creatively, and encourage them to submit their essay!

› Enter the contest

The contest is open to U.S. residents enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade in a U.S. school (including U.S. territories and schools operated by the U.S. for the children of American personnel overseas). Home-school students can also submit a name!

Explore More

• Video: Building NASA's Mars 2020 Rover –  Watch on YouTube
• Send Your Name to Mars (sign up by September 30!)
• Mission to Mars Unit
• All About Mars for kids (also available En Español )
• Mars Facts and Figures from NASA Solar System Exploration
• Spacecraft Augmented Reality app –  iOS | Android

TAGS: Mars , rover , contest , Mars 2020 , K-12 education , STEM , language arts , essay , science , students

Lyle Tavernier , Educational Technology Specialist, NASA-JPL Education Office

Lyle Tavernier is an educational technology specialist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. When he’s not busy working in the areas of distance learning and instructional technology, you might find him running with his dog, cooking or planning his next trip.

Teacher Feature | April 18, 2018

Using art and nature to imagine alien worlds.

By Brandon Rodriguez

Ms. Khosrovian teaches third grade at Stonehurst Magnet Elementary in Los Angeles County.

Lina Khosrovian is a first-year teacher at Stonehurst Magnet Elementary, a STEAM magnet school in Los Angeles County. She teaches third-grade students subjects including language arts, math, science and social studies. Ms. Khosrovian recently reached out about how she added her own creative spin to the JPL lesson Art and the Cosmic Connection to have it reflect her multidisciplinary classroom.

What inspires you to teach?

I am in my first year of teaching, and I could not be more driven and excited to teach my students about all the wonders of life. I am a learner myself, and I strive to discover new and moving ways to instill knowledge upon my students.

I consider myself extremely lucky to be teaching at Stonehurst, where we have a passion for teaching STEAM to our students. I especially appreciate the students’ enthusiasm for learning science.

What challenges do you face engaging or addressing the needs of your students?

I have found that the key to effectively and successfully teaching students is to teach what they admire, are curious or fascinated about or have an appreciation for. I always ask my students about their interests and what they would like to learn. This inspires my lessons and tends to each students’ individual interest in learning.

How did you incorporate a JPL Education lesson into your classroom?

In this lesson for grades K-12, students use art to describe and recognize the geology on planetary surfaces.

Brandon Rodriguez, an educator professional development specialist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, visited our school and presented a lesson called Art and the Cosmic Connection .

After showing us images of planets, Mr. Rodriguez handed out paper, chalk, crayons and markers, and instructed us to draw our own imaginary planet. Listening to his awe-inspiring lecture, I began to think about the beautiful garden at our school and wondered how I could incorporate it into a similar activity with my students. I decided that I would have my students create their own planet inspired by the school garden.

First, my students and I began to learn about different planets together, discussing the possible history of each unique world. We conversed and wrote about our theories. Then each student drew and wrote about their own, imaginary planet. Some students drew icy planets and said that the ice had melted when the planet was close to the Sun. Other students explained that the uniqueness of their planet was due to the presence of life and water.

With our knowledge, ideas and imagination, we grabbed paper bags to collect soil, sticks, hay, leaves, rocks and other natural items from the garden. Back in the classroom, each student began to construct 3-D versions of their drawings with the materials they collected. Their work was beautifully presented, with soil representing land, leaves representing life, blue paint representing water, and mixtures representing unknown and unique creations – plus some silver paint to make it all more “cosmic.”

How did it help you meet your objectives? How did students react to the lesson?

This lesson allowed my students to engage with the world around them and understand that planets have a uniqueness and a history that is quite remarkable. The lesson gave students a chance to discover more about their own planet and express their connection to it.

I sincerely value the JPL Education lessons, activities and resources, as they are quite beneficial to teachers. Each activity and lesson provides the opportunity for students to learn and wonder. And when you’re inspired to wonder, the possibilities are endless – and so is the fun!

Looking for ways to bring NASA STEM into your classroom or already have a great idea? The Education Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory serves educators in the greater Los Angeles area. Contact us at [email protected].

TAGS: Art , Language Arts , Earth Science , Classroom Activities , NASA in the Classroom

Brandon Rodriguez , Educator Professional Development Specialist, NASA-JPL Education Office

Brandon Rodriguez is the educator professional development specialist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Outside of promoting STEM education, he enjoys reading philosophy, travel and speaking to your dog like it's a person.

Teachable Moments | November 22, 2016

Spacecraft's 'ring-grazing' maneuver to deliver new science from saturn.

Update – Feb. 24, 2017: The deadline for the Cassini Scientist for a Day Essay Contest has passed. The winners will be announced in May 2017.

In the News

Next week, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will go where no spacecraft has gone before when it flies just past the edge of Saturn’s main rings. The maneuver is a first for the spacecraft, which has spent more than 12 years orbiting the ringed giant planet. And it’s part of a lead-up to a series of increasingly awesome feats that make up the mission’s “Grand Finale” ending with Cassini’s plunge into Saturn on Sept. 15, 2017.

How They’ll Do It

Cassini's ring-grazing orbits, which will take place from late Novemeber 2016 through April 2017, are shown here in tan. The blue lines represent the path that Cassini took in the time leading up to the new orbits during its extended solstice mission. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute | › Larger image

To prepare for the so-called “ring-grazing orbits,” which will bring the spacecraft within 56,000 miles (90,000 km) of Saturn, Cassini engineers have been slowly adjusting the spacecraft’s orbit since January. They do this by flying Cassini near Saturn’s large moon Titan. The moon’s gravity pulls on the spacecraft, changing its direction and speed.

On November 29, Cassini will use a big gravitational pull from Titan to get into an orbit that is closer to perpendicular with respect to the rings of Saturn and its equator. This orbit will send the spacecraft slightly higher above and below Saturn’s north and south poles, and allow it to get as close as the outer edge of the main rings – a region as of yet unexplored by Cassini.

This graphic illustrates the Cassini spacecraft's trajectory, or flight path, during the final two phases of its mission. The view is toward Saturn as seen from Earth. The 20 ring-grazing orbits are shown in gray; the 22 grand finale orbits are shown in blue. The final partial orbit is colored orange. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute | › Larger image

Why It’s Important

Cassini’s ring-grazing orbits will allow scientists to see features in Saturn's rings, up close, that they’ve only been able to observe from afar. The spacecraft will get so close to the rings, in fact, that it will pass through the dusty edges of the F ring, Saturn’s narrow, outermost ring. At that distance, Cassini will be able to study the rings like never before.

Among the firsts will be a “taste test” of Saturn’s rings from the inside out, during which Cassini will sample the faint gases surrounding the rings as well as the particles that make up the F ring. Cassini will also capture some of the best high-resolution images of the rings, and our best views of the small moons Atlas, Pan, Daphnis and Pandora, which orbit near the rings' outer edges. Finally, the spacecraft will do reconnaissance work needed to safely carry out its next planned maneuver in April 2017, when Cassini is scheduled to fly through the 1,500-mile (2,350-kilometer) gap between Saturn and its rings.

› Read more about what we might learn from Cassini's ring-grazing orbits.

These orbits are a great example of scientific research in action. Much of what scientists will be seeing in detail during these ring-grazing orbits are features that, despite Cassini’s 12 years at Saturn, have remained a mystery. These new perspectives could help answer questions scientists have long puzzled over, but they will also certainly lead to new questions to add to our ongoing exploration of the ringed giant.

As part of the Cassini Scientist for a Day Essay Contest, students in grades 5-12 will write an essay describing which of these three targets would provide the most interesting scientific results. › Learn more and enter

What better way to share in the excitement of Cassini’s exploration than to get students thinking like NASA scientists and writing about their own questions and curiosities?

NASA’s Cassini Scientist for a Day Essay Contest, open to students in grades 5-12, encourages students to do just that. Participants research three science and imaging targets and then write an essay on which target would provide the most interesting scientific results, explaining what they hope to learn from the selected target. Winners of the contest will be featured on NASA’s Solar System Exploration website and get an opportunity to speak with Cassini scientists and engineers via video conference in the spring.

More information, contest rules and videos can be found here .

The deadline to enter is Feb. 24, 2017.

• Find educational lessons and activities about Saturn
• Discover free educational materials and resources about Saturn
• Students can discover more about Saturn with these slideshows, games and videos
• Download this timeline featuring milestones from Cassini's mission at Saturn or explore the interactive version !
• Explore the Cassini mission to Saturn website
• Browse our Cassini news archive

TAGS: Cassini , Saturn's Rings , Saturn , Grand Finale , Spacecraft , Missions , K-12 , Lessons , Activities , Language Arts , Science , Essay Contest