Star Citizen fans can win a cool $30,000 through The Next Great Starship competition

Star Citizen fans can get involved directly in the development of the space sim and win some cash in the process through Cloud Imperium's The Next Great Starship modding competition.

The contest tasks teams of up to three people with designing, modeling and rigging a spaceship that will be integrated into Star Citizen.

TThe grand prize winner will receive $30,000 courtesy of sponsors: Alienware, AMD, Autodesk, Crytek, Cologne Game Lab, Wacom and YouTube.

Teams can register for The Next Great Starship starting October 31 and the end date of December 31.

Here's the details:

"A preliminary challenge involves the making of a fully designed wave particle cannon, submitted via a YouTube video to a nine member judging panel including Chris Roberts and other members of the CIG design and art team, Crytek and even some to-be-named celebrity judges.

"Those initial entries will be narrowed down to a final 16 and one of the 16 will be voted on by Star Citizen backers. Then those 16 teams will embark on making their Starship entries.

"Beginning January 31, 2014, episodes of The Next Great Starship will air once a week on the Roberts Space Industries™ (RSI) YouTube channel with each team providing a work in progress update to the judging panel.

"Judges will eliminate teams down to a final two which will compete live in front of the judging panel and the community during the final episode that takes place June 8 in Los Angeles."

Prizes:

• GRAND PRIZE: $30,000 in cash for the team members. Your Great Starship is included in Star Citizen and each member of your team receives the first production models off the press! As well as Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite, Maya Premium and one high-end AMD based system with Radeon R9 290X (for each team member)
• SECOND PLACE: $10,000 in cash for the team members. Alienware laptop, Autodesk Maya 2014, AMD Radeon R9 290X (for each team member)
• THIRD PLACE: $5,000 in cash for the team members. Autodesk Maya LT, AMD Radeon R9 290X (for each team member)
• SPECIALTY PRIZE: (to the most valuable player out of the remaining contestants among the final three teams voted on by the judging panel): One Cintiq Companion, the new Windows 8 “Make the World your Studio” tablet from Wacom
• FINALIST TEAMS 4 THROUGH 16: $250 in RSI Credits (non-transferable/non-refundable)

More information on how to sign up and the like can be found through here.