The Odysseus contest challenges students between the ages of fourteen and eighteen years old from all EU countries to develop a project on space exploration using their knowledge, creativity, and critical thinking. Students wishing to participate need to form teams of two to five members, plus a teacher as facilitator. Teams participating in Odysseus may choose to compete in one of the following three major theme categories:

• solar system
• spaceship - global cooperation
• co-evolution of life

Participating teams will first compete at the national level, where one team will be declared winner in each of the three categories. Winning teams from all countries will then compete at the European level, a competition in which the best project in Europe for each category of the contest will be selected. The winning team in each category will be awarded a trip to the Netherlands in April 2013, where they will have the opportunity to visit the SPACE EXPO and present their project during the Odysseus Award Ceremony. They will also have a chance to visit ESA's technical center ESTEC (European Space Research and Technology Centre).

Key Dates


14 February 2013: team registration closes

15 February 2013: submission of entries closes

01 March 2013: Announcement of Winners at National level

March 31st, 2013: announcement of winners at European level

April 2013: award ceremony in Space Expo