The Cassini Scientist for a Day contest challenges students from class 5-12 to become NASA scientists studying Saturn. Participants examine three possible observations taken by the Cassini spacecraft and are tasked to choose the one they think will yield the best scientific results. This choice must then be supported in essay.

To enter the contest

• By participating, students agree to assign copyright to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) so that JPL and NASA can post the essays, as excerpts or in their entirety, on NASA web sites, along with the authors’ name, grade, school, city, and state.
• Entries must be submitted by teachers. Entries can be submitted either in Nepali or English.

Teachers please include

• Your name, email address, telephone number including area code, and the name and address of the school, so that we may contact you.
• The name(s) and grade(s) of all students who contributed to each essay (a maximum of four per essay).
• You are welcome (and encouraged) to use this contest as a class assignment. However, you can ONLY submit the top three essays from each of your classes for us to judge.
• Only the top three essays from each class will be included in the judging. After submitting your top three essays per class, please send an email to cassini@nepalastronomicalsociety.org with the list of names of other students from your class(es) who wrote essays so we can make certificates of participation for them. If you teach more than one class, you may submit up to three top essays per class.
• Once winners are selected, winners’ teachers will be contacted and asked to provide a photograph of the student(s) to post on our website along with the winning essays. Parents/guardians must submit written authorization to let us post the photos online.

What happens next

• The decision of the judges is final.
• The winning schools, and as many other schools as possible, will be invited to participate in a teleconference or videoconference with Cassini scientists.