Student Prize Roundup: Zero Robotics, Conrad Awards, European CanSat, Genetic Engineering, More

Sparta robotics team tops in U.S. - Asbury Park Press on a top-scoring Zero Robotics team in the semi-finals.  The finals on January 23 will be based on controlling the real SPHERES robots on the ISS.

Semi Finalists - Conrad Awards presents the 80 semi-finalist teams in the Aerospace Exploration, Clean Energy, and Health and Nutrition categories.

Workshop inspires CanSat teachers - ESA Education on preparations for the second European CanSat competition

Thomas Jefferson students win space race - Fairfax Times on a high school student team preparing a CubeSat for launch as a secondary payload on an Orbital Sciences ISS cargo mission.  In spite of the article's title, this isn't part of the sort of competition I usually mention here.  It is part of NASA's Cubesat Launch Initiative, where NASA funds the launch part of the effort.

Space Foundation Student Art Contest - National Space Symposium

Joshua Neubert on the Night Rover Challenge - The Space Show - Although it's not only for students, the interview mentioned the strong interest by university and other student teams in this Centennial Challenge.

NASA-Supported Student Team Wins at International Genetic Engineering Contest - NASA

Side Panel Overhaul

This is just an administrative post letting you know I've just done an overhaul of the side panel links for the Space Prizes blog.  I probably changed more than half of the links.  Some are new additions, some old ones are removed, and dozens were just updated because the prize or team sites are still there, but have been reorganized.

Sample Return and University Rover Rules, NEA Search, SunSat Art, Space Generation Prizes, Nanosat Launch Seminar, More

Proposal Information Updated - Sample Return Robot Challenge

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URC 2012 Rules are Live! - University Rover Challenge

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NASA Human Exploration Community Workshop on the Global Exploration Workshop (PPT) - FISO - This includes "NEA Next" and "Moon Next" scenarios.  The "NEA Next" scenario covers the need to add to our list of reachable potential asteroid destinations.  Earth-based detection of these is mentioned: 

A prize based approach may also provide incentives to include more public participation.

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SGAC Announces the Barcelona Zero-G Aerobatics Challenge Winners - Space Generation Advisory Council

SGAC-EIC Space Entrepreneurship Paper Competition - Space Generation Advisory Council

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Rocket firm presentations at Team Phoenicia Nanosat Launcher Seminar - RLV News

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A lot is happening with the Google Lunar X PRIZE.  For example:

Moon Express announces alliance with Autodesk - RLV News

Did Moon Express just take the lead in the POINT of the Google Lunar X PRIZE? - Evadot

Astrobotic Wins NASA Contract for Robot Teams to Explore Martian and Lunar Caves - Astrobotic

On NASA’s Lunar Heritage Guidelines - Will Pomerantz on his personal site, InstaPom

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Two NASA Goddard Engineers Receive Prestigious Awards - SpaceRef

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International SunSat Design Competition - National Space Society blog

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Space Lab student competition on YouTube attracts 5500 teams - ESA

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Here are a couple of interesting non-space prizes:

NASA Tournament Lab/Patent Office Challenge - NASAHackSpace

DSTA launches TechX Challenge 2013 - Singapore's Defence Science & Technology Agency starts the 2nd robotic TechX challenge; the first was held in 2008.  The winning team gets S$1 million, which a currency converter tells me is a nice prize.