JAXA holds a National Elementary and Junior High School Essay & Drawing Contest every year to commemorate "Space Day" on September 12, and the theme for this year's contest was "Space Life in 50 Years." With 2020 marking the 50^th anniversary of the launch of Japan's first artificial satellite "Ohsumi," contestants were asked to imagine 50 years into the future.

KATO Daiki, who was in charge of planning and organizing this contest, said, "The coronavirus pandemic helped made this year's situation a bit unusual, but we received many wonderful submissions from elementary and junior high school students nationwide." Awardees were chosen from among 2007 entries in the drawing division and 573 entries in the essay division. The three drawings shown below were the winners of the top prizes in their respective divisions. In the essay division, NOMI Nina's "Moon Capsule" won the Grand Prize in the elementary school division and TOKI Keiji's "Expansion of Space and Thought" claimed the Grand Prize in the junior high school division, while the JAXA President's Award went to "Welcome to Mars on Your School Field Trip!" by TSUKAHARA Kanako.

Digital entries were accepted for the first time on a trial basis in the drawing division, and much of the art featured beautiful straight lines and circles and other distinctly digital expressions. In summing up the contest, KATO commented, "We received lots of imaginative works that fit the theme."

"Many of the works touched on current social circumstances and space development plans for the future, and there was a full range of tours de force that conveyed the research, thought and imagination that the artists had put into them. I hope everyone will take a look at the gallery site where we have posted the award-winning works and will be inspired themselves to think about 'Space Life in 50 Years'".