Challenges
The 14 challenges for 2026. Filter by level or subject, or search by topic or dataset.
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Abandoned but not Forgotten: Storytelling about NASA's Discarded Equipment on the Moon and Mars
Tell school-age space fans the story of hardware NASA has left on the Moon, on Mars and in deep space, and the science each piece made possible.
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Be An Earth System Trend Detective!
Pick variables measured by NASA missions or produced by NASA models, chart how they change over time and place, and decide whether those trends are statistically significant.
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Build a Junior Astronaut Mission Trainer
Build a game or app where students run a lunar or Martian outpost and balance life support, radiation shielding, power and food, so they feel the trade-offs that make or break a mission.
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CLPS Lunar Mission Browser
Make an easy tool for comparing lunar south pole landing sites and dates, showing where the Sun and Earth sit above the horizon so planners can judge solar power and direct-to-Earth communication windows.
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Create Health Monitoring Software for Astronauts on Space Missions
Build software that collects health indicators so astronauts on long missions can track radiation, bone, heart and behavioral health risks themselves and act on what they see.
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Dancing with the SARs
Use radar data from the NASA-ISRO NISAR mission to track and visualize surface change, such as wetland loss, wildfire scars, earthquakes, farming or glacier motion, somewhere on Earth.
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Field Shift: Adapting Farms with NASA Data
Build a decision-support tool that combines NASA Earth observations with local soil, crop and farmer priorities to help choose crop rotations that protect soil and conserve water.
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Flame in Freefall: AI-Powered Fire Safety Insights from Microgravity Combustion Data
Build an AI-powered dashboard that summarizes, ranks and explains decades of NASA microgravity combustion results so they can inform fire safety for Moon and Mars missions.
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Harmonization of MODIS and VIIRS Hot Spots
Merge two decades of active-fire detections from MODIS and VIIRS into one consistent record, then build a web app that shows a burning-activity calendar for any area.
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Identify Earth Locations that Analog the Permanent Moon Base Locations and Mars
Use open Earth, Moon and Mars data to find and describe new places on Earth, like deserts, polar regions, volcanic ground or caves, that resemble future lunar or Martian base sites.
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Interplanetary Survival Guide: Martian Map
Layer data from several NASA Mars missions into one view of a location or route, so a future astronaut could plan a safe, science-rich Marswalk.
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Planet X and SPHEREx
Build a public web tool that shows SPHEREx all-sky images and makes it easy to see objects such as comets, asteroids and brown dwarfs move between visits.
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Space Mission Design Game
Create a game where players design, run and simulate a full space mission, trading off objectives, instruments, launch vehicle, budget, power, mass and communications.
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The Earth Information Jukebox
Pair visualizations from NASA's Earth Information Center with sound generated in real time, so Earth science reaches people through hearing as well as sight.