Past Challenges

2020: Launch. Land. Expand!
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.
2020 award winners

2019: No Roads, No Problem!
The challenge: Design and build a hovercraft that can navigate different terrains.
2019 award winners 

2018: Drop & Dash
Design and build a device to survive a drop and deliver supplies. No batteries allowed!
2018 award winners

2017: Rock the Ravine
The challenge: Design and build a device to help explorers cross an ice field with multiple ravines.
2017 award winners 

2016: Taking Flight
The challenge: Build a glider to deliver supplies to a remote location.
2016 award winners 

2015: Building Excitement: Seismic Engineering in Action
The challenge: Build an earthquake-safe structure.
2015 award winners 

2014: Harnessing the Wind
The challenge: Harness the wind to move water to the people who need it.
2014 award winners 

2013: Asteroids Rock!
The challenge: Create a solution to safely deploy scientific instruments from a landed spacecraft to three areas on an asteroid.
2013 award winners 

2012: Shake, Rattle and Rescue
The challenge: Create a solution to help earthquake survivors stranded after a bridge collapse.  
2012 award winners 

2011: The Great Pacific Gyre
The challenge: Design and build a device to collect trash from the ocean without harming marine life.
2011 award winners 

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.
2010 award winners 

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.
2009 award winners 

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.
2008 award winners 

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.
2007 award winners 

2006: Fight the Flood
The challenge: Design, build and operate an innovative improvement to current sandbag-filling solutions.
2006 award winners 

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.
2005 award winners 

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.
2004 award winners 

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.
2003 award winners 

2002: Pass the Torch
The challenge: Design, build and operate a device that will pick up, move and set down a make-believe torch.
2002 award winners 

2001: Martian Crater Escape
The challenge: Design, build and operate a device that will climb the wall of a simulated crater on Mars.
2001 award winners 

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.
2000 award winners 

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.
1999 award winners 

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.
1998 award winners 

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.
1997 award winners 

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.
1996 award winners 

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.
1994 award winners 

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.
1993 award winners 

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.
1992 award winners 

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.
1990 award winners 

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
The challenge: Design, build and operate a device that will travel across large gaps in Martian terrain.