New Traveling Exhibit Unveiled With Spirit Of Innovation Trophy
At NASA HQ
The winners of a national
space-oriented high school competition, the Pete Conrad Spirit of
Innovation Award, were recognized Friday in a ceremony at NASA
Headquarters in Washington, DC.
To highlight the efforts of the students, the X Prize Foundation
and NASA unveiled a new exhibit which will travel around the
country called Spirit of Innovation. In addition, the X Prize
Foundation announced that the Conrad Award Scroll, inscribed with
the names of the winning team, will be carried to the International
Space Station in the fall of 2008 by Richard Garriott.
NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale and NASA Innovative
Partnerships Program Director Doug Comstock were on hand to honor
the winning teams of young people. The Innovative Partnerships
Program, a mission support office at NASA Headquarters that
promotes technology partnerships with industry and academia,
provided $10,000 in support of the Award, including grant money to
the top three teams’ schools. Comstock said, "These students
represent the future of space exploration and NASA is proud to
recognize and encourage their innovative ideas. We congratulate all
the winners of the Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award."
First-place team "Michael and Talia" from Los Angeles helped
unveil the traveling exhibit that features their winning entry. The
exhibit also showcases the 2007 competition, which was held at the
X Prize Cup at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, NM. Michael
Hakimi and Talia Nour-Omid developed an idea for a device that
would effectively monitor all of a human being’s vital signs
while in space. The winning team received a $5,000 grant for their
school and a trophy presented by Nancy Conrad, wife of the late
Apollo astronaut Pete Conrad and creator of the Prize, and Erik
Lindbergh, X Prize Foundation Trustee, great-grandson of Charles
Lindbergh and designer and sculptor of the First Prize trophy.
Bretton Alexander, X Prize Foundation Executive Director of
Space Prizes, and Nancy Conrad announced that the Conrad Award
Scroll that lists the names of the winning team members will be
carried to space by Richard Garriott on his Fall 2008 trip to the
International Space Station. Said Conrad, "Pete’s goal was to
open space to all travelers. Through the Spirit of Innovation
Award, we are bringing space to people before we can bring people
to space. We are passing the torch to the next generation of space
travelers. Nothing shows that better than Richard carrying the
scroll to the Space Station. Richard’s father Owen was an
astronaut on Skylab, and now Richard is going up. And we are all
connected, because it was Pete’s mission that rescued Skylab
and made it possible for Owen to fly."
Students from the other top two teams also attended the event.
Samantha Hopkins represented Team Gad Astro from Northbrook, IL,
who won the second place award with their concept of a self-healing
material that would rapidly fix any punctures, maintaining safety
in space. Christo Magri represented Team Penguin Education from
Friendswood, TX, who won third place with their idea for a company
that works with private and public schools to provide a high level
of space education.
The Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award is a competition for
teams of high school students to create a concept to benefit the
personal spaceflight industry. Teams submitted graphical
representations, technical documents and business plans of
concepts. The 10 finalist teams traveled to Alamogordo, NM, to
present their business plans to a panel of judges and to the
public, who voted on their favorite team.
Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr. was the third man to walk on the moon
and served on Gemini 5 and 11, Apollo 12, and Skylab 2 missions.
Conrad was the recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor
awarded for his rescue of Skylab. He was posthumously awarded the
Ambassador of Exploration Award by NASA in 2006.