Yesterday the 60 finalists of the YouTube Space Lab contest were announced, in which students between 14 and 18 years old from all over the world propose their experiments to be developed by astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS). Of the 21 shortlisted European proposals, four are Spanish.
Until January 24, the YouTube user community will be able to evaluate the finalist applications, which will also be evaluated by a jury made up of different prestigious scientists and astronauts. Next summer, the two experiments that are finally selected will be sent to the ISS to be carried out in microgravity conditions and their performance will be broadcast live. In total, the contest has received more than 2000 applications, with Spain being among the countries that have submitted the most proposals. Laura Calvo, María Vilas, Luis Álvarez and Marina López have been finalists for two projects in the category of 14 to 16 years, and in the category of 16 to 18, Miguel Moral, Rafael Ferrer, Nicolás Marí, Olivier van Donselaar and Pere Balaguer Gimeno make up the two shortlisted teams.
This joint initiative includes ESA, NASA, the Japanese and Canadian space agencies, YouTube, Space Adventures and Lenovo. Its aim is to creatively motivate future generations of scientists.
