NASA Space Apps 2026 challenge
CLPS Lunar Mission Browser
Subjects: Human Exploration · Moon · Software · Space Exploration
Summary
Missions to the Moon’s south pole face extreme lighting and communication constraints, and planning them takes careful coordination between science and engineering teams. Tools for determining Sun and Earth positions at candidate landing sites exist, but their complicated interfaces make it difficult to evaluate critical information with efficiency. Your challenge is to create an intuitive tool or application that lets mission planners, educators, and the public compare landing sites and dates quickly, visualizing Sun and Earth positions relative to the horizon to assess power generation potential and direct-to-Earth communication windows.
The full challenge statement, with its data and resources, is published on 28 October. Until then, you can read this summary, talk it over with your team and plan, but the Space Apps rules say no work on the project itself before the hackathon starts.
From the NASA Space Apps Challenge. The official page is the final word on this challenge.