Organised by the Swiss Maison d'Ailleurs (House of Elsewhere) and the OURS Foundation, under the auspices of ESA's Technology Transfer and Promotion Office, the competition is designed to promote innovative ideas for future space technologies and to encourage young people's interest in science and technology.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," said Arthur C. Clarke who together with another famous science fiction writer, Ray Bradbury, gave his name to the contest. Clarke and Bradbury have inspired generations of space scientists and explorers with their extraordinary science fiction stories.

This year a specific theme has been selected: the space elevator. Writers and artists of all ages are invited to submit a short story of no more than 2500 words, a piece of artwork, or both, describing or depicting a space elevator and its technology.

"For the first competition we received many very good stories," says ESA's David Raitt, one of the organisers and judges. "It was interesting to see the diversity of ideas these young writers demonstrated in their stories."

Continual technological progress means that ideas that were once wild speculation may now be within the bounds of feasibility. Raitt adds, "maybe some of the visions we will receive in this competition, pure science fiction today, will become reality within the next 20 to 30 years".

Take the theme of this year's contest: the 'space elevator'. The first idea could be said to date back to the English fairy tale of Jack and the Beanstalk written around 1820.

In 1895, the famous Russian scientist, mathematician and science fiction writer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, was inspired by a trip to the Eiffel Tower to imagine a tower reaching up to orbital altitude.

Another scheme for a space tower, using a satellite in geosynchronous orbit, was presented in 1960 by another Russian scientist, Yuri Artsutanov.

Writer Arthur C. Clarke brought the idea up to date in his 1979 novel The Fountains Of Paradise, which has crews and cargo riding elevators up the tower into space. Since then there have been a number of studies, most notably by David Smitherman of NASA and Brad Edwards, now at Carbon Designs Inc.

One of the major obstacles to creating a space elevator is finding the right material because as yet there is nothing strong enough and sufficiently light. One possible solution, even if not yet ready, is the use of carbon nanotubes.

One current idea is to use these to create a 100 000 km ribbon stretching up into space, on which mechanical lifters could travel to release payloads into orbit at diverse points.

The system could be comprised of various components: an initial spacecraft, the ribbon, mechanical lifters, power beaming facility, anchor platform and tracking facility.

Given the pace of development, the most optimistic prognosis is that a space elevator could be built within the next few decades or so. Once in operation it would simplify voyages into space and possibly reduce today's high launch costs.

This competition is open to space and science fiction enthusiasts from all nations. The entries, which must be in English, will be judged by an international jury and assessed using the following criteria:

The closing date for entries is 28 February 2005.

Related Links
Maison d'Ailleurs - House Of Elsewhere
OURS Foundation
Space Elevator Reference website
Wigipedia on Space Elevator
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