YOUNGSTERS tasked with building tiny sculptures to blast into space could trump competitors with clever technology.

Science Oxford is supporting Oxfordshire schoolchildren and students by offering use of its 3D printer, to engineer art pieces the size and weight of a sugar cube.

Pupils from schools, colleges and home-schooling settings across the country can create the mini masterpieces as part of a pioneering space experiment.

The SμGRE-1 mission will see scientists pick 250 of the most impressive sculptures nationwide, load them into a NASA rocket and shoot them into sub-orbital space.

To give Oxfordshire entrants the best chance of success in the competition, which is run by a separate company, brainiacs at Science Oxford will bring designs to life using a high-tech printer.

The organisation's educational outreach manager Sophie Batin said: "We thought it was quite challenging, especially for primary schools as most don't have their own laser cutters. They are quite an expensive piece of kit.

"I absolutely adore the printers. They can cope with quite a lot of detail, so hopefully they will let the children's imaginations run wild."

SuGRE-1 aims is to test novel 3D imaging techniques, by filming the small sculptures in zero gravity conditions.

Coordinated by Milton Keynes company Dynamic Imaging Analytics Limited, the rocket will launch from a tiny island in the pacific ocean in April.

It will eventually tumble back to Earth and deploy a parachute, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean before being collected by researchers.

Mrs Batin said: "It's so exciting, the thought of sending something they have made into space. It's incredible. Space is such an engaging topic - what child doesn't dream of being an astronaut?"

Entrants hoping to gain Science Oxford's help for the national contest must submit designs before the Christmas holidays, with the best three making it to the printer.

Schools and colleges can only submit one entry, and will be judged on categories including originality of design and whether the sculpture conveys a message.

The structures must have a maximum volume of four cubic centimetres and a top mass of four grams – comparable to a sugar cube.

Mrs Batin said the unique opportunity, which comes at no cost, was 'especially exciting' after the hype of Tim Peake's space adventure.

The British astronaut captured the public's attention last year during his six-month mission to the International Space Station.

Upon his return he hailed Harwell Science and Innovation Campus near Didcot as a 'central hub' of space innovation, and visited several Oxfordshire schools.

In July the Government unveiled major plans for a £99m space research hub at Harwell Campus, when universities and science minister Jo Johnson told the Oxford Mail the centre was a 'nationally-recognised phenomenon'.

Mrs Batin echoed the county's connections to the space industry, adding: "I would love to see some of our schools sending sculptures into space."

For details visit scienceoxford.com.