And the winner receives. . . Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) announced the donation of experimental payload space aboard an upcoming flight of their Dragon spacecraft to support the Heinlein Trust Microgravity Research Competition.

  The winner’s experimental payload will remain in the microgravity environment for an extended period of time before returning to Earth. Historically, these opportunities have been limited by availability on Shuttle, often involving a waiting period of many years.

“SpaceX is excited to offer our Dragon spacecraft as a platform for in-space experimentation services to mainstream researchers,” said Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and CTO. “We plan to fly ‘DragonLab’ missions starting in 2010 for this express purpose,” Musk said.

  SpaceX has partnered with the Heinlein Prize Trust and the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship at Rice University in order to promote innovation in the field of microgravity research.    

  Details on the competition can be found at this site. For applications and rules please visit.