NASA opens $1 million Moon Base design challenge for students

NASA opened its $1 million Moon Base Student Challenge on Nov. 8, 2026, at a MAX POWER event at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, according to nasa.gov. The competition invites student teams at U.S. high schools and post-secondary schools to develop designs for the agency’s planned lunar base.

• Teams can work on six areas: power, construction, life support, mobility, communications and astronaut safety.
• NASA says students from technical, vocational and academic tracks can participate without prior specialized engineering or technical experience.
• Registration through the NASA STEM Gateway is open until Jan. 25, 2027.

NASA says the multiphase challenge is intended to build technical skills for the future aerospace workforce while developing concepts for life and operations on the lunar surface. The six design areas cover power generation and storage, construction, life-support systems, surface mobility, communications networks and astronaut safety. Together, they address needs for people living and working at the Moon Base, rather than focusing on a single piece of equipment.

What it means for student teams

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said students do not have to wait until graduation to contribute to the agency’s work on the Moon. He said NASA is looking for creativity, teamwork and a willingness to tackle difficult problems without obvious answers. Associate Administrator Elaine Ho said students’ perspectives could help the agency envision a future in which people remain on the Moon.

Tech Times describes the challenge as distinct from NASA’s RASC-AL and Lunabotics competitions because it is open to high school students as well as post-secondary students. It characterizes RASC-AL as a conceptual space-systems competition for college students and Lunabotics as a college-level contest involving physical robotics hardware for moving lunar soil. Those comparisons put the new challenge’s broader age eligibility and design focus in context.

NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement designed the challenge with its Moon Base Program. The Institute of Competition Sciences administers it under contract with NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation, which is part of the Research and Technology Mission Directorate. Students must register through the NASA STEM Gateway by Jan. 25, 2027.

NASA has announced a $1 million challenge prize, but the allocation among teams or categories and the full judging criteria are not specified in the announcement. NASA directs entrants to the official competition site for eligibility requirements and rules.