[FPSPACE] Heinlein Space Project Contest

[Dmitry Pieson]

I believe some of our Friends and Partners will find that of interest.

Dmitry

The Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Prize Trust

Robert A.Heinlein Flight into the Future Project Contest

Invitation for Participation 2005/6

The Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Prize Trust is pleased to announce the
start of the 2005/6 Robert A.Heinlein Flight into the Future Project
Contest. This is a competition to promote innovative scientific works and is
being held to commemorate the memory of the famous American writer, and one
of the founders of modern science fiction, Robert A. Heinlein. The main goal
of the competition is to identify and support talented young researchers and
to encourage their innovative activities that will help to bring humanity
closer to Heinlein's dream of our future in space. The competition is part
of the Heinlein Prize project (http://www.heinleinprize.com), created to
encourage commercial activity in space.

The works for the contest may be submitted by citizens of the European,
African and Middle Eastern countries : students, post-graduate students and
young professionals who will be under age 30 at the time of the Prize
awarding ceremony on July 7th, 2006. The Trust had also made the decision to
invite the representatives of India to participate in the contest in 2005/6,
and thus, students and young professionals from this country who are
age-eligible are welcome as well. The participation is also allowed of the
students of the European, African, Middle Eastern and Indian universities
irrespective of the citizenship. The decision is made in view of the
international nature of today's university community. The options for the
visiting researchers' participation will be examined on the individual
basis.

The participants should describe their prospective project in the field of
space exploration, its peaceful use, and its potential for significant
economic benefit.

The submitted works should include scientific, technical and economic
substantiation (business plan) of the proposed project proving its potential
for practical realization and its expected economic and social benefit.

The works submitted may be produced by either individual participants, or by
teams of up to three authors. Academic advisers may be associated with the
development of the contest works.

The content and structure of the submitted contest works should meet
generally accepted quality standards for similar professional works in the
same technical field.

The works, when accepted, will be considered open and will not contain any
information of a limited distribution, nor classified information, nor data
for internal use only, nor confidential commercial information. Therefore,
the authors are totally responsible to make sure that there are no
limitations on the information content of their submittals.

All copyrights associated with material in the submittals belong to the
authors of the submitted works. The Organization Committee will abide by
confidentiality in the process of considering the contest works and require
the same from experts participating in the evaluation process. Nevertheless,
the authors are notified that the contents of their works could be disclosed
to the public. It is assumed that any legal relations between the authors
who win prizes will be regulated in accordance with their own special
agreements. Authors should add an "Annotation" chapter into their works,
containing a brief description of the project, in such a manner as the
authors consider to be appropriate for publication by the Organization
Committee on behalf of them regardless of whether the project will be
awarded the Prize or not. The Organization Committee will consider the
possibility of drawing attention of representatives of industry and business
structures to the works of the contest participants.

There are two work languages of 2005/6 Robert A.Heinlein Flight into the
Future Project Contest, English and Russian. The works sent to the contest
should be in either of these two languages, by e-mail in .rtf (Rich Text
Format) MS Word. Archived .zip files are eligible. The size of the contest
works should not exceed 80 pages of printed text. All works should be
submitted with the attributed individual motto consisting of single or
several words that will be used by the Organization Committee to manage the
anonymous expert review. If the mottos are not provided by the authors, the
Organization Committee will do that.

The comments of an academic advisor (if one is part of the project) along
with one review of his or her relationship to the project, along with
information about the individual author/authors and scientific chief are to
be sent in a separate file, attached to the e-mail, under the same motto. In
the case of a collective work, the authors in the list should be listed
according to their personal scientific contributions.

Additional information on the requirements to the works can be found on the
web-site and can be sent to the applicants by e-mail.

Contest works will be evaluated by the Expert Committee according to the
following criteria:

1. Novelty and originality of the proposal.
2. Economical and social benefit.
3. Technological substantiation and profoundness of research.
4. Veracity and investment attractiveness of the proposed technical and
economical substantiation (business plan)

Each winner will be awarded with an honorable diploma of the Trust.
According to the results of the contest, the authors' team who had won first
place will be awarded with the prize <Flight to the Future> and a monetary
prize, granted by the Heinlein Prize Trust equal to $3500. Two second prizes
of $1500 each, and three third prizes of $1000 each will also be awarded.
Any academic advisors of the teams who had won 1st, 2nd or 3rd prizes, will
receive special prizes of $1500, $500, $300 correspondingly. Special prizes
awarded by the Organization Committee and additional recognition funds may
be distributed among several other participants and their advisors as deemed
appropriate. All monetary prizes will be shared equally between the authors
with the exception for cases where it has been stipulated otherwise by any
special agreements executed between members of the author's team and
submitted to the Organization Committee.

Contest works should be sent to the address of the Organization Committee by
e-mail at contest at heinleincontest.info before 15th of May 2006. The date of
the submittal will be established by the date of the <Sent> field. The same
applies to the detailed information of the participants of the project and
their academic advisor that is to be submitted as the separate file. Based
upon the merits of the submittals, invitations will be sent to the top 10
author teams, giving them an opportunity to meet directly with the committee
for further discussions and evaluations. The presentation of those projects
will take place on the 6th of July and the awarding of the winning teams
will take place on the 7th of July 2006, which is the birthday of Robert A.
Heinlein. The Organizational Committee may be able to provide limited travel
support for a limited number of participants to the final presentation
location that will take place in one of the European centers for space
research and industry.

The Committee recommends that those who intend to take part in the contest,
to register beforehand. The completed registration forms for contest
participants should be sent to the committee's e-mail address:
contest at heinleincontest.info. The Committee plans to send various
informational and related materials to the registered participants.

The Committee will confirm reception of all correspondence from the contest
participants.

The base internet page for the Contest-related activities and information
is: http://www.heinleincontest.info.

Heinlein Prize Trust Advisers:

Arthur M.Dula
Li Furong
Dmitry Poletayev

With any Contest-related questions, please contact:

Dr. Dmitry Pieson
Academic Secretary
contest at heinleincontest.info
dpieson at gmail.com