Space agencies scanning YouTube for ISS experiment ideas

Google has teamed up with Space Adventures, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for the YouTube Space Lab, a new "galactic" video channel that lets students submit ideas for experiments to be performed on the International Space Station (ISS).

A panel of astronauts, scientists, and expert judges - including Professor Stephen Hawking himself - will choose the best of the best, according to the official blog entry. If selected, your experiment idea will be performed on the ISS with a live YouTube broadcast for earthbound viewers at some point in 2012.

The deadline for entry is December 7th, 2011, and the channel currently contains videos which Google is describing as "inspiration" for prospective entrants.

Winners also get ZERO-G flights, Lenovo IdeaPad laptops, and the option of either a trip to Tanegashima Island, Japan to watch the rocket containing your experiment blast off, or a block of cosmonaut training in Star City, Russia (for after the winning students turn 18, of course).

Intriguingly, Google is positioning the YouTube Space Lab as an early teaser of YouTube for Schools, an upcoming pilot program that aims to bring the video service's educational content into the classroom with some additional video sharing features.