The fifth annual Martine Rothblatt Space Settlement in Our Lifetime business plan competition wrapped up in late June at the National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference in Orlando, Florida. Representatives of the three finalists were brought to the conference to present their space settlement-related business plans to an audience of well over 60 people who each voted for the first, second, and third place prizes of $16,000, $10,000, and $6,000 USD. The competition is hosted by the National Space Society and generously supported by Dr. Martine Rothblatt who attended this year’s finals competition. The event was emceed by Gabriel Rothblatt, Dr. Rothblatt’s son and Vice-Chair of the NSS Board of Directors.
The first place award went to Anjan Balakrishnan and Nicholas Iraj Baumann (shown above) of Georgetown University for their plan called Radiation Protection Solutions, an advanced sandwiched design for radiation shielding for deep space missions. Second place went to Dr. Richard Nederlander and his team from Spargo Space Corp., featuring a business plan for orbital propellant depots. Third place went to Trent Tresch for his plan called StratoLabs, a self-contained high-altitude balloon kit for independent aeronauts and researchers.
The competition is intended to identify and encourage entrepreneurs to pursue space settlement-related businesses that will help to enable the human settlement of space and that align with Dr. Rothblatt’s vision for space exploration, development, and settlement. More information and videos of Dr. Rothblatt explaining this positive vision for our future in space can be found at the competition website, spacebizplan.nss.org.
In keeping with Dr. Rothblatt’s expansive humanist vision and belief in equity and inclusion, the competition welcomes entries from anyone, anywhere in the world, as individuals or as teams. Specific guidelines for entering can be found at the competition website. Note that entries must be complete business plans as outlined in the competition rules and guidelines.
In the past few years, hundreds of competitors from over 50 countries have engaged the competition with a total of 126 entries. The 2026 competition is now open for submissions. Go to the competition website at spacebizplan.nss.org and sign up to receive submission guidelines, deadlines, and competition updates. The submission deadline for this year’s competition is February 15, 2026.
Photo credit: Rod Pyle
