This Challenge is now complete.

Mission:  Design a Lunar Base Challenge
Grades: K-4, 5-8
Participation: K-4 as class, 5-8 as class or in teams of 4 or more

Today’s students will be our next generation of explorers and just may be the first people to live and work in a community on the Moon. Design a Lunar Base Challenge encourages students to utilize their inquiry, imagination and problem-solving skills.   All of these skills are essential to NASA’s vision for space exploration.  As part of this mission, students are challenged to act as design systems teams to support living and working on the Moon. The challenge is to design a combination of facilities that 1) support living and working on the Moon, 2) make exploration possible on the Moon, and 3) can protect both the explorer and the Moon from contamination. 

Students in grades K-4 should work as an entire class and submit a project to the National Challenge as an entire class.  Students in grades 5-8 must work in teams of four to six, with each group creating their own model of a lunar base.  The school or class then hosts a local challenge.  Student teams who scored highest in their local challenges have the opportunity to present their projects to a NASA panel of judges through the Digital Learning Network.

The Design a Lunar Base Challenge objectives or students are to (1) demonstrate knowledge of lunar characteristics; (2) demonstrate creative solutions in establishing a base on the moon; (3) demonstrate understanding of scientific principles behind living and working in space; and (4) provide a final project and oral presentation of their work.  For more information about the Challenge please download the Design a Lunar Base Guide located in the links on this page.