NASA has opened registration for its 2026 Space Apps Challenge, a two-day event scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 14, and Sunday, Nov. 15. The agency describes the annual program as a global hackathon where teams work on problems developed by NASA specialists, drawing on NASA’s publicly available data.
The challenge is organized around three broad areas: returning people to the Moon, preparing for exploration farther into the solar system, and improving understanding of the universe. NASA says coding is not a requirement. Students, researchers, engineers, designers, storytellers and other interested participants, across a range of ages and experience levels, are invited to take part.
Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in the agency announcement that participants can use NASA data to contribute ideas for an interplanetary survival guide. Fox linked that work to supporting the science needed for astronauts to operate on the Moon and, in time, Mars, as well as potential benefits for life on Earth.
Several of this year’s challenges concern lunar mission planning. NASA says some focus on tools and operating requirements for work near the Moon’s South Pole, where sunlight and communications availability can shape mission activity. Other projects address the practical and scientific demands of extended stays, including modeling how an outpost might function and considering astronaut health and safety.
The program also includes challenges related to Mars and other deep-space missions. According to NASA, participants may explore concepts for surface operations on Mars, combine information from multiple Mars missions or examine choices involved in designing missions far from Earth. Other tasks concern tracking physical and behavioral health during long journeys and weighing how engineering and science decisions affect mission operations.
NASA said some projects connect to its wider exploration work, including potential missions to Europa, a moon of Jupiter, and Titan, a moon of Saturn. The agency describes these challenges as ways to consider mission planning and environmental comparisons relevant to complex operations across the solar system.
The astrophysics portion draws on NASA’s work to study the universe’s structure and history. The announcement highlights SPHEREx, whose full name is the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, and says the mission is conducting a survey across the sky using spectral observations. NASA also points to observatories being developed and deployed to investigate cosmic evolution and populations of exoplanets, meaning planets beyond our solar system.
Projects in this area are intended to make mission information easier for the public to use, develop tools for visualizing how the sky changes over time, and encourage broader engagement with scientific data and findings.
NASA says participants can attend one of more than 500 local events, form or join a team, and choose a challenge to work on during the November program. Registration information is available through the NASA Space Apps Challenge website. The agency presents the event as a way for people beyond the professional space community to work with its open data and respond to practical questions tied to its missions.
