Students with ideas that can dramatically advance NASA's Vision for Space Exploration program can win one of four $9,000 fellowships. The NIAC (NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts) Student Fellows Prize program provides opportunities for creative college students to develop revolutionary advanced concepts in aeronautics, space, and the sciences.
"The NIAC encourages potential student fellows to focus their thoughts and stretch their imagination decades into the future. It encourages an aggressive pursuit of concepts that will leap-frog the evolution of today's systems and that can be the framework for future NASA missions and programs," said NIAC Associate Director, Dr. Diana Jennings of the Universities Space Research Association, which runs NIAC for NASA. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. manages the program for the agency.
NIAC is seeking prizewinning concepts that stretch the imagination and that are based on sound scientific principles. Student fellows are required to team with an experienced mentor in an aerospace-related field from academia or industry. NIAC encourages contest entrants to think decades into the future in pursuit of concepts that will "leapfrog" the evolution of current aerospace systems. The deadline for proposal submissions is April 15, 2005. Awards will be announced in May.
For information, previously sponsored proposals, application procedures, eligibility and program requirements on the Web, visit: http://www.niac.usra.edu/index.html
For information about NASA and the Vision for Space Exploration on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/explore_main.html
