A 15-year-old from North Carolina has won the grand prize in The Planetary Society’s international art contest, “Imagining Titan: Artists Peer Beneath the Veil.”
Chelsey Tyler’s award is an all-expenses paid trip to the European Mission Control Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany. There, she will witness the landing of ESA’s Huygens spacecraft on Saturn’s giant moon, Titan, on 14 January 2005.
Her winning entry, “Chaos Beneath the Veil,” will also be displayed at Huygens Mission Control.
“We look forward to welcoming the winner of this contest to the European Space Operations Centre,” said Claudio Sollazzo, the Head of the Huygens Operations Unit at ESOC.
“In addition to uncovering the scientific secrets of Titan’s atmosphere and surface, Huygens will serve to intrigue and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.”
The international competition was open to students, aged 10-17, and adults, aged 18 and above. From three winners in each age group, a panel of judges chose one grand prize winner.
The other first prize winners in the youth category are Antonieta Tavares (11) from Venezuela, and Xinlu Fang (15) from China.
First prize winners in the adult category are Frank Hettick and Steve Munsinger from the USA, and Daniel Chiesa from Uruguay.
22 second place winners were also chosen. They included entrants from Australia, Brazil, France, India, Poland, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, USA, and Venezuela. In total, there were 435 entries from 35 countries.
All of the first and second place winners receive a package that contains: one year’s free Planetary Society membership; a Certificate of Honour; a Cassini-Huygens mission patch; an ESA poster, pin and keychain; and a ‘Nine Planets’ set of colour prints.
Until 14 January, no one knows whether Titan will look like Chelsey’s picture. On that day, ESA’s Huygens probe will plummet into Titan’s atmosphere and parachute toward the hidden surface.
After a descent that lasts about two and a half hours, the spacecraft may splash into a lake of petrol-like liquid, squelch into tar-like gunge, or smash into solid ice.
