Year 12 students in the Isle of Man have the chance to win highly coveted places at the 2024 United Space School (USS) in Houston, Texas.

Scholarships to the USS have been awarded annually to island students by ‘River Advisers’, formerly known as the ‘ManSat Group’, since 2000, and the competition is open to the island’s five high schools and King William’s College.

The most recent winners were Daniel Comley from Ramsey Grammar School and David Sargent from Queen Elizabeth II High School in Peel, who attended the 2023 Space School in July.

Next year’s USS is set to take place from July 14 to July 29, and will see young people from around 20 countries work together to plan a crewed mission to Mars.

The event is ran by the Foundation for International Space Education (FISE), and sees the students supported by NASA astronauts, engineers, and scientists.

Three scholarships are being offered for this year’s competition, and in order to win, year 12 students must answer these three questions:

1) Why are you interested in space?

2) How do you think the Isle of Man can contribute to the future of space exploration?

3) How would you improve the safety and sustainability of space exploration?

The answer to each question should be between 500 and 1,000 words in length and emailed to [email protected] in a single PDF file.

The deadline for entries is 11.59pm on Friday, January 12, with the winners being announced by Thursday, January 18.