Pete Conrad was one of only 12 men to walk on the moon. His visionary footsteps have led us on a path of exploration continuing to this day. After Pete passed away in 1999, his wife, Nancy Conrad, teamed up with the X PRIZE Foundation to create the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award. This Award reflects Pete’s dream to mobilize the next generation of entrepreneurs. It is a dynamic educational program for teams of high school students that connects education, innovation, and entrepreneurship in a revolutionary model of incentivized student competition.

The X PRIZE Foundation and Nancy Conrad are pleased to present this exceptional opportunity.

The 2008 Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award includes two competition categories:

Personal spaceflight: Assume you can go to space. Create an innovative concept and business plan for use in personal spaceflight.

Lunar exploration: Assume you can go to the moon. Create an entrepreneurial venture for lunar exploration.

Students will compete for over $20,000 in prize money, trips to the 2008 X PRIZE Cup, and many more special benefits stemming from the competition’s unique position within the aerospace industry. The competition focuses on benefiting our student competitors in four key ways:

1) Connecting education and entrepreneurship: we are uniquely positioned to create real ties between the most innovative students and entrepreneurs in the industry
2) Educating and exciting students: the dual business & technical focus of this competition and hands-on, interactive approach generates unparalleled opportunities to educate and excite students about entrepreneurship as well as STEM disciplines
3) Providing competitive incentives for student learning: competition drives innovation
4) Creating unique business opportunities: the most innovative students are provided unique opportunities to present to industry entrepreneurs who may help guide students in commercializing their concepts.

For additional competition details and official rules, click here.

For information on past competitions, click here.

To receive updates and additional information on the competition, click here.

Background
Charles “Pete” Conrad has been a pioneer in aerospace entrepreneurship for over four decades. From the very beginning of the American space program Pete has played an integral role in all facets of exploration. He flew NASA’s Gemini V and Gemini XI programs in 1965 and 1966. In 1969, he became the third man to walk on the Moon in Apollo XII. Pete concluded his career at NASA with the Skylab II mission in which his emergency spacewalk saved the entire station and earned him a Congressional Space Medal of Honor. After departing NASA, Pete joined McDonnell Douglas and with the team of Delta Clipper Experimental vehicle (DCX) headed the efforts to create the next generation of commercial space transportation vehicles.