Essay Contest: Entries Due November 30th

Entries for our essay contest for undergraduate students are due November 30th. This year’s contest asks writers to address the question, “What would be the most significant impact of establishing remote contact with extraterrestrial intelligent life?” The 2016 BMSIS essay contest is a partnership with METI International and the ASU Beyond Center. Students pursuing a degree at a 2- or 4-year college anywhere in the world are eligible for this contest. [click here for more details about the BMSIS essay […]

August 16, 2016

BlueSciCon Episode 46: Involve me and I learn: Is the future of space exploration crowdfunded?

Guest: Wojciech Gładysz
Topic: Will the future of space exploration be crowd funded?

February 20, 2016

Essay Contest Winners

This year’s topic asked essay writers to address the question: “How can human civilization develop a successful strategy for the sustained exploration of the inner solar system for the next 200 years?“. We are pleased to announce this year’s winning essay authors: Winner – Wojciech Gładysz (University of Warsaw) 1st Honorable Mention – Shayna Hume (University of Miami) 2nd Honorable Mention – Hanna Sandhu (Penn State University) Congratulations to our essay contest winner and honorable mentions, and thanks to all […]

July 22, 2015

Podcast: Sustained Solar System Exploration

Live from the 2015 Astrobiology Science Conference in Chicago, our BlueSciCon podcast for June features a lively discussion of our collective ideas for the “Sustained Exploration of the Inner Solar System.” We are currently promoting our essay contest for undergraduate students with the same theme, and we hope that our discussion will help to stimulate ideas in many of our essay contest participants. We purposefully excluded Mars from the conversation (only because Mars gets a lot of attention…), and so […]

June 14, 2015

BlueSciCon Episode 39: Sustained Exploration of the Inner Solar System

Live from AbSciCon 2015 Beverages: Various Listen: [mp3 download] Questions to consider: How can human civilization develop a successful strategy for the sustained exploration of the inner solar system for the next 200 years? What planets and astronomical bodies should we target? Can space exploration be profitable? Is space colonization desirable? [ca_audio url=”http://beerwith.bmsis.org/BlueSciCon_39_JUN2015.mp3″ width=”500″ height=”27″ css_class=”codeart-google-mp3-player”]

May 27, 2015

Podcast: Complementary Currency

Our “BlueSciCon” podcast for May features a conversation with our 2014 essay contest winner Kamir Hiam titled “Redesigning Human Motivation and Aiming for the Stars“. Space exploration requires costly investment, and the lack of an immediate return on this capital provides little economic incentive for a long-term exploratory program. Likewise, optimal solutions to environmental challenges sometimes compete against marketplace forces, which can create difficulties in motivating new behaviors. In his winning essay, Kamir Haim proposes that “complementary currency” could provide […]

May 7, 2015

BlueSciCon Episode 38: Redesigning Human Motivation and Aiming for the Stars

Kamir Hiam Listen: [mp3 download] Questions to consider: How does the modern global market economy inhibit innovative solutions to civilization’s environmental challenges? What is complementary currency, and how do new forms of complementary currency emerge? How can complementary currencies help to direct human behavior? Could too many forms of complementary currency lead to an economic “bubble”, followed by a market collapse? How can innovative economic ideas foster the human exploration of space? [ca_audio url=”http://beerwith.bmsis.org/BlueSciCon_38_MAY2015.mp3″ width=”500″ height=”27″ css_class=”codeart-google-mp3-player”]

April 1, 2014

Essay Contest Featured in Eos

Our essay contest on the distant future of humanity was featured in this week’s issue of AGU’s newsletter Eos. The contest is open to college students with submissions due in just a few weeks! [Access the article at Eos]

January 22, 2014

Essay Contest: Preparing for the Distant Future of Civilization

The first BMSIS essay contest invites college students to craft an essay addressing the question: In the next 100 years, how can human civilization prepare for the long-term changes to the Earth system that will occur over the coming millennium? Essays are due on 22 April 2014, and cash prizes will be awarded to the winner and two honorable mentions. For more details visit bmsis.org/essaycontest, and please spread the word to any individuals or groups that may be interested! [BMSIS […]