Sidmouth and Ottery space cadets get NASA offer

A PAIR of science students from the Sidmouth and Ottery St Mary areas could become space cadets and earn places on the trip of a lifetime to help NASA this summer.

A PAIR of science students from the Sidmouth and Ottery St Mary areas could become 'space cadets' and earn places on 'the trip of a lifetime' to help NASA this summer.

The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) wants students aged 17 and over to take part in a competition which could see them jet to California on a quest to discover if life exists at the extreme edge of the atmosphere.

Winners will join a group of scientists on an astrobiology research trip to America from July 14 to 27.

The group will travel to California to work in a NASA laboratory and then to Nevada's Black Rock Desert to launch a device 40 kilometres into the stratosphere using a high altitude rocket.

NESTA will sponsor the visit to help discover whether life, in the form of microbes, exists in the harsh environment.

If microbes are detected, the team hope to learn about how life forms have adapted to survive and information may help vital advances in science back on earth.

Students hoping to apply must say how they would design an experiment to detect microbes in the atmosphere.

Visit www.nesta.org.uk/nasa for more information. The closing date for entries is midnight on May 24.