NASA launched a $1 million student competition on November 8, 2026, to fund engineering solutions for its planned lunar south pole base.
Administrator Jared Isaacman announced the multiphase competition during a MAX POWER event at the Kennedy Space Center. The program aims to establish a permanent crewed outpost at the lunar south pole by the early 2030s.
We are inviting students from across the country to help solve some of the problems that stand between humanity and a permanent presence on another world,
Isaacman said.
The competition is open to student teams at U.S. high schools and post-secondary institutions, including vocational and technical students as well as four-year university enrollees. The Institute of Competition Sciences administers the challenge through a contract with the NASA Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation within the agency’s Research and Technology Mission Directorate. The Office of STEM Engagement developed the challenge in collaboration with the Moon Base Program.
Student teams can submit innovative designs addressing authentic environmental and mission design parameters across six technical categories required to sustain human life on the Moon: power generation and storage, construction and habitat modules (including in-situ resource utilization like anorthite found in highland regolith), life-support systems, surface mobility rovers, communications networks, and astronaut safety.
The challenge is an educational design programme and project-ideation effort rather than an operational mission award, and winning concepts are not guaranteed immediate flight adoption.
The lunar environment presents severe technical hurdles across these areas. While the lunar base near the South Pole will allow astronauts to live, work, and explore—and lay the groundwork for future crewed missions to Mars—construction equipment must operate autonomously or semi-autonomously in a vacuum, under extreme cold, and in brutally abrasive regolith that can destroy seals and clog mechanical systems without an on-site human technician for repairs.
We need to move people and equipment around on the surface and support human life three days away from Earth,
Jared Isaacman, Administrator
The contest mirrors how ideas are actually developed in the aerospace industry.
Deliverables reflect professional standards used by working aerospace engineers, including trade studies and stakeholder briefings. Specialized engineering or technical experience is not required to participate, opening the opportunity for students across various industries and backgrounds.
Just announced at MAX POWER: a $1 million Moon Base Student Challenge! https://t.co/VLc1ca1b2r The competition tasks U. S. high school and post-secondary student teams to develop solutions to real-world engineering constraints for establishing a long-term human presence on the… pic.twitter.com/JuVrVdV70u
As we build and design the foundations of Moon Base, we want to leverage all the ingenuity and innovation to think of every consideration our explorers might need to live and work there,
said Carlos García-Galán, manager of the Moon Base Program.
Students bring exactly the bold ideas that we’re looking for, and I’m looking forward to their fresh perspective. Ultimately, Moon Base is for them, people who will experience a world where humans are on the Moon to stay.
Students are the next generation of explorers and innovators,
stated Elaine Ho, associate administrator for the Office of STEM Engagement at NASA Headquarters. Their unique perspectives are key to helping us envision a future away from Earth, and I’m excited to see the creativity and ingenuity spurred by this challenge.
Compared to other established NASA student initiatives like RASC-AL, which focuses on conceptual space system design, and Lunabotics, which centers on physical robotics hardware, the Moon Base Student Challenge directly tackles the six distinct problem domains required for the agency’s planned lunar outpost.
NASA Announces $1 Million to Students for Moon Base Challenge On Sunday, NASA announced the opening of its $1 million Moon Base Student Challenge during a MAX POWER event at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. As part of a Golden Age of Science, the competition… pic.twitter.com/lL0OTgfakV
Earlier coverage: NASA Unveils $10B Moon Base Contract for Eight Companies