The far-flung mysteries of Mars. The brain-teasing riddles of electric aircraft. The deep, swirling secrets of the sea.

NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia is inviting local children grades K-12 to use their talents, imagination, and knowledge of NASA to create original artwork for a 2016 NASA Art Contest called Reveal the Unknown.

The contest is open to all children grades K-12 attending public, private, parochial and homeschools in Hampton Roads. Hampton Roads includes the cities of Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Newport News, Hampton, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Poquoson, Williamsburg, and the counties of York, Gloucester, Isle of Wight, James City and Mathews.

The art contest is intended to illustrate how NASA research and innovation is propelling science forward to new discoveries, and to highlight how NASA discoveries help build a better world – one full of opportunities, technologies, and ways to understand ourselves and protect and conserve our home planet.

NASA Langley has a long history of revealing the unknown. This year, we’ll celebrate the 40th anniversary of Viking 1 and Viking 2<https://youtu.be/Zf_ayatWjyc> being the first human-made spacecraft to land on Mars and study its dusty surface.

We’ll also continue to study the possibilities of electric flight – something successfully tested last year with our battery-powered, 10-engine remotely piloted aircraft, the GL-10<https://youtu.be/kXql26sF5uc>. Langley setting its sights to the sea as well. For NAAMES, a five-year investigation of the immense influence of petite plankton<https://youtu.be/wF3a-bPoZvw>, the mission is using satellites to probe deep into the Atlantic Ocean.

You can review the 2015 art contest winners<https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa_langley/sets/72157651291561993> for inspiration on our Flickr gallery at https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa_langley/sets/72157651291561993

Access the contest entry form here: 2016-nasa-langley-art-contest-entry-form.pdf<https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/2016-nasa-langley-art-contest-entry-form.pdf>