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The challenge: Design, build and operate a device that will travel across large gaps in Martian terrain.
Past Challenges
Past Tech Challenge Lessons
2023: Survive the Storm!
The challenge: Build a structure to protect vulnerable objects from extreme winds.
2022: Kinetic Commotion
The challenge: Create a device that transfers stored energy to make sound!
2021: Ultimate Upcycle
The challenge: Assemble a useful item out of cardboard that transforms into something else.
2020: Launch. Land. Expand!
The challenge: Build a launcher to propel devices in an arc through a hoop to land in a designated area. After landing, devices should expand into a larger size.
2019: No Roads, No Problem!
The challenge: Design and build a hovercraft that can navigate different terrains.
2018: Drop & Dash
The challenge: Design and build a device to survive a drop and deliver supplies. No batteries allowed!
2017: Rock The Ravine
The challenge: Design and build a device to help explorers cross an ice field with multiple ravines.
2016: Taking Flight
The challenge: Assemble a useful item out of cardboard that transforms into something else.
2015: Building Excitement: Seismic Engineering in Action
The challenge: Build an earthquake-safe structure.
2014: Harnessing the Wind
The challenge: Harness the wind to move water to the people who need it.
2013: Asteroids Rock!
The challenge: Create a solution to safely deploy scientific instruments from a landed spacecraft to three areas on an asteroid.
2012: Shake, Rattle and Rescue
The challenge: Create a solution to help earthquake survivors stranded after a bridge collapse.
2011: The Great Pacific Gyre
The challenge: Design and build a device to collect trash from the ocean without harming marine life.
2010: International Space Station Mission: Space Junk
The challenge: Design and build a solution that can help rid the universe of space junk by getting an inoperative satellite to burn up upon re-entry.
2009: Explore the Volcano
The challenge: Create a device that can deliver a payload of up to six geological instruments (aka ping-pong balls) to the top of a volcano in three minutes.
2008: Water Works
The challenge: Create a device to deliver water to a tank in a village on a hill above the river. There is no electricity in the village; only the flow of the river can be used to generate power.
2007: Mars Crater Mission
The challenge: Design, build and operate an unmanned device that can survive a 12-foot drop into a Martian crater and then successfully exit the crater by ascending a 6-foot wall.
2006: Fight the Flood
The challenge: Design, build and operate an innovative improvement to current sandbag-filling solutions.
2005: Battle the Blaze
The challenge: Design, build and operate a device that can retrieve water (one water balloon) from a lake and deliver it to a fire (a designated target) on the top of a ridge.
2004: Pick a Pike
The challenge: Design, build and operate a device that can find and collect one northern pike fish from Lake Davis and place the fish within a collection area on shore.
2003: Canopy Climb
The challenge: Design, build and operate a device that can climb vertically up a 15.5-foot-long rope and reach the top of our make-believe rainforest canopy to retrieve a ping pong ball.
2002: Pass the Torch
The challenge: Design, build and operate a device that will pick up, move and set down a make-believe torch.
2001: Martian Crater Escape
The challenge: Design, build and operate a device that will climb the wall of a simulated crater on Mars.
2000: High Adventure in Space: Mission to Power Up a Satellite
The challenge: Design, build and operate a device that will repair a drifting satellite that is slowly rotating in space by inserting a battery to restore its power.
1999: Rescue at Sea
The challenge: Design, build and operate a device to reach the top of a simulated swaying boat mast, trigger a sensor and safely return to the base of the mast.
1998: Climb an Elevated Bridge Cable and Prevent a Major Disaster
The challenge: Design a device that simulates an inspection mechanism that can traverse the bridge cable between two upright supports.
1997: Land a Robotic Rover on Mars and Escape from an Ancient Crater
The challenge: Design a robotic lander/rover that can accurately and safely crash-land onto an ancient Martian flood plain when released from high above the planet’s surface.
1996: Climb a Treacherous Passageway Inside an Ancient Egyptian Pyramid
The challenge: Design a device that ascends a passageway, negotiates various obstacles on the track, and successfully reaches the top within three minutes. The ramp or track simulates the interior or an ancient Egyptian pyramid burial site with steep long passageways and obstacles.
1995: Take the Climb
The challenge: Design a lightweight, small rope-climbing device that can quickly ascend and descend a 15-foot rope simulating a trip to the tall rainforest tree canopy.
1994: Under-Ice Salvage Mission in Antarctica: A Nuclear Fishin’ Impossible
The challenge: Help NASA retrieve a canister of nuclear waste from the bottom of an ice-covered Antarctic lake, directly below a large hole in the ice.
1993: Satellite Model
The challenge: Design, build and operate a device that will repair a drifting satellite that is slowly rotating in space by inserting a battery to restore its power.
1992: Martian Motion
The challenge: Design, build and operate a Rover vehicle that can operate on a simulated Mars surface, move from landing site through rough terrain, collect a Mars rock sample and return and deposit the sample back at the landing site.
1991: Escape from Valles Marineris on Mars
The challenge: Design, build and operate a Mars Rover to escape a difficult situation, jump a gap, resist soft sand and climb steep walls.
1990: Analysis of Martian Soil and Steep Incline Martian Terrain
The challenge: Design, build and operate a Mars Rover that will analyze and sort soil and then climb a steep incline.
1989: Mars Traction Problem
The challenge: Design, build and operate a device that will find traction through dense surface material on Mars.
1988: Mars Crater Hole Problem