Blue Origin and rock band OK Gohas have jointly launched a contest that will enable students to submit ideas for art experiments to be sent into space.

Sponsored by Cognizant Technology Solutions, the ‘Art in Space’ contest is open for students aged between 11 and 18 years. The University of St. Thomas’ Playful Learning Lab is also a partner in the project.

Teams comprising three or more students, along with one adult mentor, can enter the contest. They can submit technically feasible ideas that can be turned into space-worthy experiments by 6 May.

“We want students to dream up their own experiments, and we will help them get their art in space.”

Two ideas will be selected from the entries by a team of judges, including OK Go band members, engineers from the Playful Learning Lab, and aerospace experts.

Playful Learning Lab engineers will then assist the winning teams in developing the projects into payloads to be sent into aboard the Blue Origin New Shepard reusable spacecraft.

New Shepard is designed to take payloads into suborbital space. Blue Origin hopes to soon launch the first manned flight into space later this year.

OK Go lead singer Damian Kulash said: “Creativity is really the joy of experimentation. When we made our video in microgravity, we were just experimenting – pushing our ideas and our understanding further and further through trial and error and play.

“We’ve made music videos by performing all sorts of art experiments that overlap with math, and science, and engineering.  Now, we want students to dream up their own experiments, and we will help them get their art in space.”