The Moon Society is running an “Apollo 13—40th Anniversary Essay Contest”. Apollo 13, intended to be the third manned mission to the Moon, launched on 11 April 1970, but an explosion aboard the spacecraft on the 13th turned the mission into a successful failure, as the crew was returned home safely on the 17th. The Moon Society is running this contest in honor of that mission because “it is a sad truth that many Americans have lost the frontier spirit and have become risk-averse. This was evident in public reaction to the Challenger and Columbia mishaps. The only disaster in either event was this minority segment of public opinion. None of us would be here if our ancestors had not willingly taken risks. Our message is: Manned Space Exploration is Worth the Risk, and the Moon Society is running an Essay Contest on this theme.”
First prize is a three-year membership in the Moon Society. Second prize is a one-year membership. The winning entries will be published in the organization’s newsletter, Moon Miners’ Manifesto, and in their online fiction magazine, Moonbeams.
Judges for the contest are author Marianne Dyson, Moonbeams editor Charles Lesher, and SFScope editor Ian Randal Strock (who previously edited and published Artemis Magazine).
Entry deadline is 1 April. For more details, see this page.