Goheung Space Aviation Festival, Announcement of Winning Entries for Astronaut Idea Contest

Published 13 May.2024 13:53(KST)

Growing Consensus on Environmental Issues in Space Industry, Including Space Debris and Food

Gohung-gun, Jeollanam-do (Governor Gong Young-min) held the Gohung Astronaut Idea Contest for a month starting April 1st and recently announced the winning entries.

This contest was conducted to raise interest in the “14th Gohung Aerospace Festival,” establish the image of Gohung as a space aviation hub city, and spread awareness about emerging “environmental issues” in the space industry, such as space debris and space food solutions.

[Photo by Goheung-gun]

A total of 140 works were submitted to the contest. Six works were selected through the first round of written evaluation by experts, and the final winners were chosen based on on-site evaluations by visitors during the 14th Gohung Aerospace Festival.

The grand prize was awarded to student Ryu Joong-seon for his idea inspired by the fragmentation of space debris, proposing to control explosions in reverse to efficiently and quickly re-enter space debris to Earth through shock waves.

Excellence awards went to Park Moon-soo and Cho Moon-sung, and encouragement awards were given to Jung Hoon, Ryu Woo-chung, and Kim Ji-ho. The selected winners received plaques and monetary prizes.

The judges from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute who participated said, “The ideas submitted to the contest were innovative and showed great interest in environmental issues of the space industry,” adding, “We hope the Astronaut Idea Contest will not end this year but become an annual event.”

Gohung-gun also plans to hold the Gohung Astronaut Idea Contest again at next year’s Gohung Aerospace Festival to diversify the festival’s content.

Meanwhile, the “14th Gohung Aerospace Festival,” Korea’s only platform to space, held for three days from May 4th to 6th at the Naro Space Center in Gohung, was successfully concluded with about 60,000 visitors nationwide despite bad weather.