The National Space Society Congratulates the Winners of the 2026 Rothblatt Business Plan Competition

The Martine Rothblatt Space Settlement in Our Lifetime Business Plan Competition is Now Open for 2027

MERRITT ISLAND, FL, UNITED STATES, July 17, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The National Space Society congratulates the winners of the Rothblatt Space Settlement in Our Lifetime Business Plan Competition for 2026. The competition offers cash prizes totaling $32,000 USD for the best three business plans that will serve to advance, in some way, the movement of humanity off-Earth in a productive and peaceful fashion.

Three finalist teams were selected out of hundreds of entries from all over the globe. Each of these teams presented their plan in person to a group of people—both senior NSS reviewers from the contest and the general public—at the NSS’s annual International Space Development Conference in early June. Final selections for first, second, and third prize were made after the presentations.

The $16,000 first prize went to Michael Castle-Miller of Beacon, New York, for his plan entitled “Lunar economy Simulation,” which will develop a multi-actor modeling platform for lunar economic and governance experimentation.

The $10,000 second prize went to Sathesh Raj Periasamey from Malaysia and Florence Pauline Basubas from the Philippines for their plan entitled “Solar-Microbial Intelligent Lunar Energy System,” which presented a new, biologically-based method of harnessing and transmitting power in space.

The $6,000 third prize went to Jonathan Pickering and Shaun Mungall of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada for their plan entitled “SolVita Gardens,” a modular, automated food-production platform optimized for space and low-gravity environments.

“We were quite impressed with the quality of the submissions this year,” said Dr. Michael Kobrin, the competition’s executive manager. “Over the past seven years we have received a number of very forward-looking and inspired business plans, but this year’s plans were exceptional. We are looking forward to entries for 2027.”

The 2027 competition is now open for entries at the competition website, spacebizplan.nss.org. The deadline is February 15, 2027. Complete competition details are on the website, along with descriptions of the competition’s goals and videos featuring Dr. Martine Rothblatt’s vision of space settlement. The competition is open to anyone, anywhere on Earth (subject to local and regional law), and youth is encouraged to apply.

ABOUT THE NSS
The National Space Society is the preeminent non-partisan citizens’ voice on space exploration, development, and settlement, reaching millions through its membership, numerous outreach channels, and media activities. The organization was founded in 1987 via a merger of the National Space Institute and the L5 Society. To learn more about the NSS and its mission to establish humanity as a spacefaring species, visit us on the web at nss.org.

Rod Pyle
National Space Society
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