Students are being invited to form teams and enter the 2020/21 Conrad Challenge, which could land them a trip to the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

Founded by late Apollo astronaut Charles ’Pete’ Conrad and his wife Nancy, the competition is open to students aged 13-18 around the globe.

There are seven categories that can be entered - the four traditional categories of aerospace and aviation, cyber-technology and security, energy and environment, and health and nutrition, plus three special categories for this year, which are: oceans - the plastic problem, smoke-free world: eliminating and reducing e-cigarette waste, and smoke-free world - re-purposed farmlands and tobacco crops.

sponsors

Each year the ManSat Group sponsors Isle of Man teams by covering their entry fees to the Conrad Challenge, along with travel costs should a team reach the final, which takes place in Florida.

The challenge launches this Friday with the first step for the student teams (which comprise between two and five people) being to register online and start inputting their submissions for round one, which is the ’investor pitch’.

Chief technical officer at the ManSat Group and former St Ninian’s student Jennifer Stone said: ’The Conrad Challenge is an inspiring competition which brings young people together with the aim of creating innovative products and solutions.

’It also provides budding entrepreneurs with the opportunity to apply their science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills to develop the products of tomorrow.

’Isle of Man teams have done extremely well to reach the latter stages of previous challenges so we’re hopeful of continued Manx success and representation in the final.’

Given the global Covid-19 pandemic, regular updates will be given to the teams, should any aspects of the challenge be altered.

For more information visit: https://www.conradchallenge.org/conrad-challenge

The Conrad Challenge is just one of the opportunities the ManSat Group offers to island students each year.

The company also offers scholarships to the NASA United Space School, held in Houston in July, and has sponsored island high schools to participate in the UK Rocketry Challenge.

In addition, the company awards an annual ’ManSat Fellowship’ grant for students seeking to further their studies in space and scholarships to programmes run by the International Space University in Strasbourg.