The National Space Society 2024 Roadmap to Space Student Art Contest

Introduction

This year I had the honor of serving as the Operations Manager and Principal Art Judge for the 2024 Roadmap to Space Student Art Contest which was sponsored by the National Space Society (NSS) and cosponsored by the SmallSat Education Conference. The theme for this year's contest was Our Future in the Space Workforce and challenged student artists to envision a future where humanity has expanded its presence beyond the surface of the Earth and is engaged in work on this new frontier.

My history with this particular art contest was having previously served in various judging and support capacities. This is the seventh such contest and the second in which the SmallSat Education Conference was a cosponsor.

Art Contest Risks

Conducting this sort of art contest can be a risk for an organization. For example, this year I had been asked to serve as an art judge in another organization's space art contest that targeted children/students. This was that group's first attempt at having an art contest and it did not end well. Unfortunately that contest failed to attract any entries.

My own history with respect to art contests dates back to 2007 when I took on the challenge of managing the National Space Society's first ever art contest. Fortunately I was able to solicit a sufficient number of prizes that succeeded in attracting a large number of quality submissions, with the 12 winning artworks being used to illustrate an oversized space settlement art calendar that sold out - making it both a financial success and a marketing success.

For the 2024 Roadmap art contest, we did incur one very large risk that was unique to this year's contest - and it was a risk of my own making.

Managing the 2024 Art Contest

As the Operations Manager for the 2024 Roadmap to Space Student Art Contest, there were two major changes I made to the contest. The first was the introduction of an entry fee and the second was the creation of an ebook for the contest.

My proposal to require an entry fee for the contest was very risky as this was a contest for students and many of our entries came from countries other than the United States. However, I viewed the imposition of an entry fee as being a necessity based on the results of last year's contest. The 2023 contest attracted approximately 5,700 entries from around the world and our very small team of volunteers was totally overwhelmed by this number of entries. For my part, I had to view every submission and determine whether or not to accept it into the contest. I saw reducing the number of entries as critical in order to make the contest more manageable. This was a big risk but one I was willing to take. As it turns out, we received over 450 submissions in total, which was a far easier number of entries for our team to process.

My second proposal was to create a free ebook about the contest. The creation of this ebook would be contingent on there being a sufficient number of submissions and prizes awarded to make the effort worthwhile. As it was within the power of those judging the art contest to determine what prizes, if any, would be awarded, a final decision on whether or not to publish an ebook had to await the outcome of the judging process. However, because of time constraints, I felt that a model ebook had to be created in advance so that once the judging was complete, if we moved forward, the ebook could be quickly completed since placeholders were already in position. Fortunately, this worked like a charm and the ebook was quickly completed.

I viewed the creation of an ebook about the contest as being a clear positive for a variety of reasons. First, the ebook would contain every artwork submitted to the contest so that the students would be able to use it as a keepsake. Second it would provide wider visibility for the art that the students created. Third, it could be used as a reference point and promotional item for future contests. Lastly, it could be used as an example of both the education and space outreach related work that NSS does

Roadmap Space Art Contest Summary

The art contest was open to all full time students world wide who were between the ages of 10 and 25, with submissions by younger students requiring parental consent. The student submissions were separated into four age categories:

• ages 10-13
• ages 14-18
• ages 19-22
• ages 23-25

The contest had a clear and well defined set of submission requirements. In conjunction with the submission requirements, the guidelines that the judges would use in evaluating the art were also provided to the students. The objective was that by providing the students with this combination of requirements and guidelines that the art judges would be using, the students would be able to better target their artwork to the contest's objectives.

In terms of the prizes awarded, the art contest could have one Grand Prize, up to 12 First Prizes, and an additional number of Honorable Mention awards. Or the contest might not award any prizes at all if the judges were of the opinion that none of the submitted artworks were of sufficient quality. While this was clearly stated in the contest's guidelines, we have, fortunately, never not awarded a Grand Prize and multiple First Prizes.

Generative AI Art Not Allowed

One of the art contest's submission rules was that no generative AI created art would be allowed. This was an obvious submission requirement as the objective was to get students to create their own original artwork, whether it was using traditional art tools or software tools, like Photoshop, GIMP, Krita, Blender, etc. Unfortunately we did get a number of submissions that had obviously been created using a generative AI. Curiously, the generative AI artworks submitted to this year's contest were much easier to spot than with last year's contest. Most dismaying was that some students who submitted artwork made using a generative AI claimed to have painted the artwork.

The Art Contest Prizes

For the 2024 contest, to acknowledge the time and energy that students devoted to their space art creation, we (the National Space Society and the SmallSat Education Conference) were able to offer a number of prizes. In brief the prizes consisted of the following:

• A $300 cash prize (Grand Prize winner only)
• Having their artwork printed on postcards and launched on a suborbital flight by a Blue Origin rocket with the postcards subsequently stamped for authenticity post-flight and then mailed to the student
• Having their art displayed at the 2024 SmallSat Education Conference
• The possibility of being exhibited at the 2025 International Space Development Conference
• The possibility of being displayed at other relevant venues during 2025
• A 1 year National Space Society student membership
• Publication of their artwork in the National Space Society’s Ad Astra magazine
• Complimentary copies of the Ad Astra magazine issue in which their artwork appears
• Having their art featured on the SmallSat Education Conference website
• Having their art featured on the NSS website in the 2024 Roadmap to Space Student Art Contest Winners Gallery
• Having their artwork considered for possible publication in various forms in association with NSS and/or the SmallSat Education Conference
• A Certificate of Merit Award

In addition, all students whose artwork was accepted into the contest received a certificate acknowledging their participation.

Judging the Art

As Principal Judge, I was responsible for doing the initial screening of all art submitted to the contest. This involved first determining whether or not the submitted art met our submission requirements. The second step of the initial judging was to determine whether or not the submission was of sufficient quality to be seriously considered as being a contender for one of the contest's prizes. For this segment of the contest I was assisted by Sînziana Balaceanu (from Romania) and Xavi Gonzalez.

The final round of judging, in which the prizes were determined, was carried out by myself and noted space artist Bryan Versteeg. The determination of which art would receive a prize - and which prize it would be - was a challenging task. We began this final round of judging by starting with the oldest age group and discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each of the candidate artworks in turn.

I was heartened by the fact that Bryan and I were in near complete agreement with respect to the awarding of the Grand Prize, the several First Prizes, and the Honorable Mentions.

The Grand Prize Artwork

The winner of the Grand Prize was the artwork titled Lunar Descent: The Astral Spiral Quest by Javaba S.S Narayana, a student at e-Techno School-Nandini Layout, India. This artwork won based on its strong graphic appeal and compositional simplicity. It also had something of a classic retro space art feel to it.

My Favorite First Place Artwork

When it came to choosing an artwork to receive the Grand Prize, I was torn between Lunar Descent: The Astral Spiral Quest and Cosmic Classroom: Learning Among the Stars. Of the artworks awarded a First Prize, this one is my favorite. The setting is clearly somewhere in outer space, on an O'Neill space colony perhaps. The young girl is clearly working with advanced visual computing technology and the presence of the handwritten equations adds to informational/educational aspect of the artwork. Color, contrast, composition, and theme all worked very well together.

The Roadmap to Space Student Art Contest eBook

You can best learn about the contest and the art entries by downloading and reading the contest's ebook. The ebook is 53 pages long and 14.5 megabytes. The ebook was formatted as a 6x9 trade paperback. The ebook's table of contents is:

• About the Team
• About the National Space Society
• About SpacEdge Academy
• About the SmallSat Education Conference
• Introduction
• The Art Contest's Rules
• The Art Contest's Prizes
• Art Judging Guidelines
• Contest Commentary By Bryan Versteeg
• 2024 Grand Prize Entry
• First Prizes for Age Group 10-13
• Honorable Mentions for Age Group 10-13
• First Prize for Age Group 14-18
• Honorable Mentions for Age Group 14 - 18
• First Prize for Age Group 19 - 22
• Honorable Mentions Age Group 19 - 22
• First Prizes for Age Group 23-25
• Honorable Mention for Age Group 23 - 25
• Artwork Submissions By Students Aged 10 To 13
• Artwork Submissions By Students Aged 14 To 18
• Artwork Submissions By Students Aged 19 To 22
• Artwork Submissions By Students Aged 23 To 25
• Reflections on the 2024 Contest
• Web References

The Roadmap to Space Student Art Contest Live Presentation

I am in the process of creating a presentation that provides background on the contest's history, talks briefly about the challenges of defining an art contest, and proceeds to focus on the best of the submitted art with an emphasis on the space settlement and space development challenges which that art addresses. If you are a representative of an organization that would like to host this presentation for either your members or a public audience, please contact me. The presentation is suitable for all ages and audiences.

The Plan for the 2025 Contest

Initial planning has begun for the 2025 contest. One aspect will be a longer submission period that covers more of the school year. There are some other plans for the contest that will be made public at the appropriate time.

Art Contest References

Following are links to websites associated with the space art and the Roadmap to Space Settlement Student Art Contest.

• Our Future in the Space Workforce: A Review of the 2024 Roadmap to Space Student Art Contest NSS Blog Post
• Roadmap to Space Student Art Contest
• Gallery of winning art for the 2024 Roadmap to Space Student Art Contest
• Wikipedia Space Art page
• Wikipedia List of space art related books