Fox’s ‘Xploration Station’ Launches Third-Annual #StudentAstronaut Contest, Giving STEM Students the Chance to Train for a Trip to Mars
21st Century Fox Social Impact
As space exploration efforts around the world focus more and more on mounting a manned mission to Mars, Xploration Station’s latest #StudentAstronaut contest offers America’s top STEM students the chance to join the action. The contest, now in its third year, allows college students to compete for an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii to train for a journey to Mars alongside Xploration Outer Space host Emily Calandrelli. Students should apply by posting their video submissions to the Xploration Station Facebook page by Sunday, May 28. Xploration Station is a three-hour block of STEM programming for teens and their families airing weekend mornings primarily on Fox TV Stations in more than 100 million homes nationwide.
“Mars is the next major frontier for crewed space exploration,” said Calandrelli, who received a Daytime Emmy nomination this year for her work on Xploration Outer Space. “By centering this year’s contest around such an ambitious mission, we hope to really inspire and encourage those young people who will actually make it happen!”
The contest winner will travel to Hawaii and stay overnight at HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation), which replicates the experience of daily life on Mars. The winner will also operate rovers alongside the experts at PISCES (Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems) and the NASA Robotic Mining Competition Team Vulcan at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, as well as visit the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, located on the summit of Maunakea.
Students 18-years and older can submit to the contest by creating a video no longer than three minutes that answers why it is important to explore Mars, how this experience would help launch their careers in the space industry, and why they should be selected as the next Student Astronaut. Students should post these videos to the Xploration Station Facebook page with the hashtag #StudentAstronaut.
“Our Student Astronaut contest is one of my favorite things about this business,” said Steve Rotfeld, president of Steve Rotfeld Productions, which produces Xploration Station. “These kids are so incredibly impressive, it can’t help but make us optimistic about the future.”
This year’s #StudentAstronaut was announced on April 24, just one day after submissons closed for the first ever #StudentExplorer contest. The competition gave high school and college students the chance to accompany Philippe Cousteau Jr., grandson of legendary explorer Jacques Cousteau and host of Xploration Awesome Planet, on an underwater voyage to study whale sharks off the coast of Mexico.
Xploration Station comprises six series in total: Cousteau’s Xploration Awesome Planet, Calandrelli’s Xploration Outer Space, artist and futurist Chuck Pell’s Xploration Earth 2050, Youtube star Steve Spangler’s DIY Sci, marine biologist Danni Washington’s Nature Knows Best, and Weird but True, hosted by Charlie and Kirby Engleman, produced in partnership with Nat Geo Kids.
