2008 Space VidVision Contest

A while ago I posted on a Space Show interview of Greg Zsidisin. One of the things Greg discussed was a space video contest he planned to create with a $1,000 prize. (I haven't listened to the more recent Space Show interview of Greg that, judging from the text summary, might cover the contest in more detail). He seemed to be looking for any type of positions, as long as they had quality and were about space.

Since then the prize has gone ahead. Space for All links to an update on the prizes. It's considerably bigger now. There are 3 prizes: $2,000, $1,000, and $500. Greg's original idea was that he would be the sole judge, but the current rules have judges from the Space Frontier Foundation. Perhaps the Foundation added some funds to the prize, who knows?

Note that the deadline has been extended to November. That should match well with the political season.

I see a few entries on YouTube:

The Future Of American Human Spaceflight - IPVSpacer

The Future of American Human Spaceflight II - IPVSpacer

Space Video Contest Submission - sirachman

I'm not sure whether or not all entries will appear at a central location like this $2000 Space Video Essay Contest! page with video responses.

Here's the specific question the contestants need to answer: "What should the future of American human spaceflight be?"

The contest site presents a number of media links. Space Future notes the following:

Entries must not only be creative and interesting—they must also be more creative and interesting than the staff of SpaceFuture, who plan on entering. And winning.

Watson says the competition will be the first of many, with different questions used as talking points for conversations about space. “I believe this project has the potential of becoming a phenomenon that opens a new way of sharing & popularizing opinions about the space industry as a whole.”