Your artwork could fly to the moon.
The Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC), a space development company, and the community space program LifeShip have partnered to launch a competition that will send winning entries to the moon.
"We’re excited to inspire the next generation of space enthusiasts who can express their passion artistically, with a chance of actually sending their work into space," Orbital Assembly CEO Rhonda Stevenson said in a statement.
The OAC Gravity Art Contest calls for artists to "create an original work of art to promote travel to the on-orbit space stations, especially the world's first gravity-enabled space stations, OAC's Voyager or Pioneer stations," according to the statement.
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Inspiration for artists will come from OAC's planned commercial space stations, including their flagship project, Voyager station. Voyager's futuristic design uses a giant rotating ring to produce varying levels of near-lunar artificial gravity.
OAC aims to host space tourists on Voyager and plans to integrate luxury hotel suites, bars and restaurants into the station, along with accommodation for government astronauts conducting low-gravity research. Construction of Voyager is scheduled to begin in 2025.
Entries in the new art contest will be judged on several categories, including originality, emotion, whimsy and "gravity in space" and split into two age-related sub-competitions. The youth competition is broken up into three age groups — 12 and younger, 13 to 15 and 16 to 17. There's also an adult competition for people 18 years and over.
Winners and runners-up from both competitions will receive a cash prize and coupons to the OAC merchandise shop.
However, there's another prize for both age groups that's literally out of this world. In collaboration with LifeShip — a space and genomics company that sends human DNA to outer space — OAC will be sending the top 300 pieces of art from both competitions to the moon as part of a "DNA seed bank and Golden Record time capsule mission," according to the statement.
"Imagine the exhilaration of seeing a work of art that you've created being exhibited on the moon in the first lunar art exhibit. We invite every space enthusiast who envision[s] a visit to space to submit their entry ASAP," Stevenson said.
Competition entries must be submitted to the OAC by May 15. For more information about the competition and its entry requirements, visit the the OAC's website.
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