With the success of SSS-PG Essay Competition 2019, the SSS-PG Essay Competition is now an annual event that promotes the involvement of individuals with a passion for space.

 

The competition deadline has been extended to January 13th 2021 23:59 UTC. The competition is now closed.

 

“What Space Traffic Management measures must be internationally implemented to improve the safety and sustainability of outer space?”

Description

63 years ago, mankind’s major milestone in space exploration was achieved. Since then, there has been an increase of missions to space which have greatly helped improve the daily living of everyone. However, the increase of space missions also meant the increase of defunct objects in space that are now causing congestions in altitudes and orbits that are mostly used. The congestion of space around Earth poses problems to the current and future of space exploration, and the safety and sustainability of outer space.

This competition is an opportunity for everyone to introduce new ideas and get yourselves involved in resolving the matter of Space Traffic Management.

We look forward to your submissions!

Applications Open: 26th October 2020

Application Deadline: 25th November 2020 23:59 UTC Extended to January 13th 2021 23:59 UTC The competition is now closed.

To apply, write an essay in connection with the theme “What Space Traffic Management Measures must be Internationally Implemented to Improve the Safety and Sustainability of Outer Space?”

The essay must follow the guideline below.

Award

Winner:

1st Runner-up:

2nd Runner-up:

3rd to 9th Runners-up:

  • Electronic Certificate from SGAC

How to apply

To take part in the competition you must submit your essay (length of around 1000 words, see details below)  as an unlocked PDF document under 5 MB through the SSS Essay Competition Submission Form at the bottom of this page.

The competition deadline has been extended to January 13th 2021 23:59 UTC. The competition is now closed.

Guidelines

Eligibility

  1. Participants must be aged 18 to 35 years old on the final submission date. 
  2. Participants can be a citizen of any country.
  3. Participants must not be a member of the competition organizing team. Juries and immediate family members of juries and of the organizing team members are ineligible for this essay competition.

Submission

  1.  All submissions shall be made by 25th November 2020 23:59 UTC January 13th 2021 23:59 UTC The competition is now closed. Any submissions after the deadlines will not be considered.
  2. The submission is due as an unlocked PDF document under 5 MB. It shall be submitted via the SSS Essay Competition Submission Form. You will need to be logged in as an SGAC member to access the submission page. Become an SGAC member now!
  3. The essay must be written in English. Basic English grammar may be used in consideration of the participants whose native language is not English.
  4. The essay should have a length of around 1000 words (The length should be within 10% of this, so 900-1100 words), excluding references/bibliography. Essays exceeding the upper limit of 1100 words will not be considered.
  5. Essays must include citation and have a bibliography.
  6. Formatting and citation: Arial, size 12, single spaced. To cite an external reference(s), participants should place the Author’s last name and then comma (,) followed by the year of publication in parentheses. Participants may use APA style format for the bibliography. For further information about the APA style format, you may refer to the link: http://www.iirp.edu/pdf/IIRP-APA-Guidelines.pdf.
  7. The essay must include original content and research; all paradigms of research are acceptable
  8. Participants must not include personal identifiers (name, age, etc.) in the essay: judges will only see an anonymized essay without your email address to ensure a fair process.
  9. Participant has to be the sole author (team entries are not permitted) and must hold all rights to the essay. 
  10. Essays must NOT be previously submitted to other competitions or published.
  11. Participants are only allowed to submit ONE essay. 
  12. Essays on behalf of another person will not be accepted. 
  13. All essays will be judged equally regardless of the participant’s age, gender, race, nationality, religion, and title. 
  14. Submitted essays must be an original work of the participant. 
  15. Plagiarism of more than 10% will be disqualified.
  16. Essays may have any kind of graphic illustrations or tables, and must be properly cited and a caption included. These do not count towards the word count.

Copyright and Intellectual Property

  1. By submitting an entry, participants agree to permit SGAC and all affiliated organizers to mention their names, affiliations,  bio, and headshot picture in connection with the competition.
  2. Copyright of the submitted entry shall remain with the contestants. However, by submitting an entry all participants agree that SGAC and all affiliated organizers are granted non-exclusive reproduction rights regarding all submitted papers. SGAC and all affiliated organizers may also present ideas and findings generated by this competition at relevant conferences.

Liability

  1. The organizing team is NOT responsible for essays that are lost, misdirected, delayed, have incomplete information, are corrupted or essays that are not received for any reason.
  2. The organizing team, its subsidiaries, and its affiliates are not responsible for any problems, losses, damages or injuries of any kind resulting from the attempt/failure of participation, participation in the essay competition or from the participant’s acceptance, possession and or use or misuse of any prize.

Evaluation

The Evaluators will be composed of the SGAC team and representatives from the sponsoring companies.

All admitted essays will be evaluated on the following criteria:

  • Content – Subject is discussed clearly, fully and matches topic.
  • Clear expression of thought and style – The discussion is easy to read, contains word use appropriate to the topic, creative sentence structures, appropriate sentence length, and logical progression of ideas.
  • Strong organization – Every paragraph supports the main argument in a coherent way, and clear transitions point out why each new paragraph follows the previous one.
  • Support and development of the idea – Effective organization of supporting evidence.
  • Originality of idea – Idea is original, innovative and yet realistic to achieve at a certain point of time.

Schedule

Applications open:

26th of October 2020

Applications close:

25th November 2020 23:59 UTC Extended to January 13th 2021 23:59 UTC The competition is now closed

Announcement of Winners:              

28th December 2020  5th February 2021 Unfortunately the judging process has been delayed. We are currently in the final stage. Winners will be contacted and an announcement made as soon as possible.

Contact

For any questions, please contact [email protected]

Sponsors

The SSS-PG Essay Competition Organizing Team and SGAC thank our sponsors for their contributions. The event would not be possible without their wholehearted support.

Innovator package

 

 

Explorer package

 

 

Media sponsor