The Space Generation Advisory Council is announcing a partnership with the International Astronautical Federation’s Space Power Committee (SPC) to organise and run the 1st Space Solar Power International Student and Young Professional Design Competition.

The competition aims to challenge entrants to submit a technical paper for a new and innovative technical concept for Space Solar Power (SSP).

SSP, in its typical implementation and for the purposes of this competition, is the idea of transmitting power harvested from the sun in space down to Earth.

The winning entrant will be given up to $2000 USD to cover travel costs to to Naples, Italy to present their paper at the 2012 Space Generation Congress (SGC) and to present a poster at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC).

The competition aims to challenge entrants, in this case individuals and small teams (1-3 people) between the ages of 18-35, to submit a technical paper for a new and innovative technical concept for Space Solar Power (SSP). SSP, in its typical implementation and for the purposes of this competition, is the idea of transmitting power harvested from the sun in space down to Earth.

The entrant shall describe in technical detail their idea on a new SSP technical concept taking into consideration the use of current or realistic near-future technologies in a single technical paper (maximum length of 10 pages).

The competition is intentionally broad. Contestants should attempt to understand the scientific, engineering, economic and social challenges involved.

The submitted papers will be judged based on, but not only, aspects such as originality, feasibility, economic viability or novelty with previously proposed concepts.

After the competition’s results announcement, the winning entry will be requested to prepare a 3 to 5 min long executive summary video as well as both IAC and SGC presentations.

Submission Deadline: 1st July 2012 (23:59 UTC)

Winners Announced: 17th August 2012