IAE Student is Semifinalist for NASA Essay Contest

International Academy East Junior Siddharth Gupta has been named one of 155 semifinalists in Future Engineers and NASA’s Artemis Moon Pod Essay Contest. This prestigious national competition challenged K-12 students to think about leading a one-week expedition at the Moon’s South Pole, including writing about their expedition’s crew and technology and imagining leaving their technology behind to help future astronauts explore the Moon. (Gupta’s essay about potential space solar power can be read here: https://www.futureengineers.org/artemismoonpodessay/gallery/38093.)

Approximately 14,000 essay submissions were received from K-12 students across the country and over 1,000 eligible judge volunteers comprised of educators, professionals, and space enthusiasts helped review essays.

As a semifinalist, Gupta received an Artemis Prize Pack filled with space-themed prizes plus the opportunity to attend a series of virtual Artemis Explorer Sessions with NASA experts. Bfor for all the students who submitted an entry: NASA will fly a digital copy of all 14,000 essays around the Moon aboard Artemis I.

Gupta was thrilled to learn his essay was going up into space and felt he had learned what astronauts would need to land on the moon and what is crucial for their survival and for future expeditions. “The most exciting thing about going to the Moon is the possibility of living there substantially and also people landing on the moon after 50+ years is remarkable,” said Gupta. He has always had a natural curiosity for science, technology and space, and credits the International Academy community with “helping to embrace my creativity and knowledge about the natural world and encouraging me to take part in this competition.” Of living there

Later this month, the contest will be narrowed to nine national finalists, who will be interviewed about their essays. In May, the grand prize winners will be announced, each of which will win a family trip to attend NASA’s Artemis I launch at Kennedy Space Center.

For contest details, including a full listing of the 155 state/territory semifinalists, please visit:

https://www.futureengineers.org/artemismoonpodessay

The NASA web feature can be viewed here:

https://www.nasa.gov/stem/semifinal-round-of-artemis-moon-pod-essay-contest.html

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Photos courtesy of the Troy Schools and the Gupta family.