Our Space - Digital Adventures in Space

NEWS FLASH - OUR SPACE COMPETITION WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

GRAND PRIZE RESULTS

The winners of the first Our Space Competition were announced at a special event at the Farnborough International Airshow on Friday 23rd July 2010.

• The Grand Prizes for the under 13 age category were awarded to Jacob Westlake from Bishops Stortford High School for Boys, and Abigail Burn from
  Rookwood School in Andover

• The Grand Prize for the 14+ age category was awarded to Mala Mawkin from
  Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls, Elstree

Those who received special Richard Garriott Award certificates were:

Sophie Harker from Vyners School in Ickenham, Hemang Balkrisha from Rushey Mead Secondary School in Leicester, and Emily Waide from the Stephen Perse Foundation School in Cambridge.

The Class Prize was awarded to the Stephen Perse Foundation School in Cambridge.

WINNING ENTRIES:

You can view Jacob Westlake's winning entry here.

You can view Mala Mawkin's winning entry here.

You can download Abigail Burn's winning entry here.

Congratulations to all the winners and runners-up!

The competition is now closed, but the Our Space website will remain for you to use and download videos, pictures and other resources. We will also make any further announcements about future developments for the Our Space project on this page.

If you have any queries about Our Space, please contact info@our-space.org.

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As the competition get's started, there'll be more news, information and tips appearing on this site. So check back here regularly to get the latest.

You can also get more ideas on space stories from live news feeds from organisations like NASA, Space Adventures, CosmOnline and ESA. Check out the Other Resources & Links section for links to these and many other websites for live science stories too.

22-6-2010: UPDATE - COMPETITION DEADLINE EXTENDED!
The deadline for submission of entries to the Our Space Competition has now been extended to 8th July 2010. But get your entries in soon - that's less than two weeks away!

1-6-2010: UPDATE - There may be an interesting encounter of the space type for our winners at the Farnborough Air Show Futures Day - all still under wraps but check back here for updates.

1-5-2010: Our Space Launch Press Release

'Lord British' launches competition for top space adventure

British-born astronaut Richard Garriott, aka 'Lord British', has announced the launch of Our Space, a new competition with prizes that are out of this world.

Led by Queen Mary, University of London and supported by the UK Space Agency, Our Space challenges school children to create an amazing digital adventure, a flight of imagination about their own space trip, or a class video to help others understand how to get to and live in space.

Top prizes, including a trip to Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and Johnson Space Centre in Texas, will be awarded to the best entries that capture the excitement of exploring space.

Richard has uploaded unique video footage from his 2008 International Space Station visit onto an interactive website created by GovEd Communications who have edited the footage into 'bite-size' sequences, which young people are free to use in their competition entries. "I hope that through these special videos, people can share my passion for space," he said. "This competition is an excellent chance to experience the incredible fun and learning I was lucky enough to have on my mission. This time, you are in charge and the countdown has started!"

One of the first visitors to the site, Olivia age 15 from Lewisham, said: "Richard is very entertaining and makes his videos fun and intriguing. It has already persuaded me to embark on a space adventure."

Ryan, also 15, said after his visit: "The videos are interesting and surprisingly funny. He does the things you’d want to do in space, have fun!"

Professor Peter McOwan from Queen Mary, University of London, who leads the Our Space partnership, said: "Richard's life as a games developer is already legendary; Our Space now adds a new level to that legend. It's been an amazing journey for the team working on making these space adventures accessible, educational and fun."

Ravi Kapur, Managing Director of GovEd Communications, said: "Space is the perfect science education tool. Richard has filmed all kinds of incredible things in space that you couldn't dream of doing on Earth, which is what makes them so thrilling. Imagine trying to guess what physics, maths and biology experiments would be like in zero-gravity, now you can see them all online and even try out your own."

Chris Barber, Director of the International Space School Educational Trust (ISSET) said, "This competition is a brilliant and imaginative way to stimulate young people's scientific minds. The opportunity to work with inspirational people at the heart of the world’s biggest exploration project - the human space programme - is not to be missed."

The competition closes on 1 July 2010 and the winners will be judged by a panel of space, education and media experts, along with Richard Garriott himself.

As well as a trip to the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and Johnson Space Centre in Texas with the ISSET, the galaxy of cool prizes includes visits to the House of Commons, special entry tickets to Farnborough Futures Day, tickets to the National Space Centre, World Space Week invitations to Intech, an iPod Touch, and signed goodies from Richard Garriott and Lucy Hawking, daughter of physicist Professor Stephen Hawking.

To find out more about the competition and to get first hand tips on how to create your digital space adventure check out: http://www.our-space.org

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