Pete Conrad Awards Launch

Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Awards Launch Nationwide - NASA Watch

From the Conrad Awards site:

Students may participate on 1 team in any of 3 challenge areas:

1. Personal Spaceflight - assuming you can go to space, create an innovative concept and business plan for personal spaceflight.
2. Lunar Exploration - assuming you can go to the Moon, create an entrepreneurial enterprise for lunar exploration.
3. Renewable Energy - In response to Al Gore's challenge to America, create a new, clean, carbon-free way of using renewable energy to change everyday life.

Details of the prizes include:

Finalist Travel Expenses - finalist teams will receive a $2000 travel stipend.

...

Discretionary Educational Grants - the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place teams from each competition category will receive discretionary educational grants to be divided as follows: 50% to the team's school or sponsoring organization (club, group, etc.); 25% to the team's advisor; and 25% to the team members. Grants include a MINIMUM dollar value of:

1. 1st place - $10,000
2. 2nd place - $6,000
3. 3rd place - $4,000

The total prize purse will be supplemented by additional funding from the public support received through the team profile pages. 20% of the public support (described in #5 below) will be added directly to the discretionary Educational Grant prize pool.

There are also a number of non-cash benefits that should be of particular interest to high school students that might be interested in careers in one of these areas.