From an impossible question to a mission that keeps evolving

The institutional origin lies in Space Talent Lab.

Early documents describe Reto Marte as a programme created to connect space exploration, education, STEAM, creativity and collaboration, using Mars as a context for imagining responses to challenges that also belong to Earth.

The initial idea already contained something that never disappeared: looking at extreme conditions in order to ask questions everyday life rarely forces us to confront.

Mars began as the challenge.

Over time, it also became a mirror.

Genesis began in 2023.

It brought together 520 young people from four countries.

Records from the first edition document 71 projects, with the International Final taking place at Universidad Espíritu Santo in Ecuador from 17 to 20 October 2023.

The mission confronted participants with a question that was simultaneously simple and extraordinarily difficult:

How do you keep human beings alive on a planet that was not made for us?

Answering it required technology, but also collaboration, research, creativity and the ability to connect different forms of knowledge.

Genesis showed that there was a mission worth continuing.

In its second year, the mission moved to Water.

The question became more focused: how do we manage and conserve the resource without which no living system can survive?

The edition added three new countries.

Its closing report recorded more than 800 students and educators directly reached and highlighted projects involving water purification in extreme environments and intelligent irrigation systems.

The 2024 International Final took place in Madrid.

But 2024 mattered for another reason: the programme began documenting not only achievements but also what needed to improve.

International growth brought real operational difficulties.

The 2024 report identifies challenges involving global coordination, participant retention, team support, travel, accommodation and international logistics.

Those difficulties informed decisions.

Planning needed to begin earlier. Teams needed more personalised support. Virtual activities required stronger management.

The history of Mars Challenge is therefore not only a history of what worked.

It is also a history of learning how to operate an international mission while it grows.

In 2025, Fire placed energy at the centre of the problem.

The challenge asked participants to design sustainable energy systems capable of supporting a six-person crew on Mars for two years.

Generation. Storage. Efficiency. Heat. Fuels. Safety. Limited resources.

But the question no longer ended on Mars.

Solutions were also expected to address energy challenges on Earth, including renewable energy transition and reduced dependence on fossil fuels.

The Mars → Earth connection was becoming increasingly explicit.

By the end of 2025, accumulated documentation recorded:

2,000+ young people

8 participating countries

240+ documented projects

730+ mentors and educators

These numbers represent documented participation and production.

They do not, by themselves, establish causal impact.

They show that what started as an experience in 2023 had become an international network of young people, educators, institutions and projects.

In 2026, the mission reached Earth.

Not only the planet.

Soil. Resources. Habitats. Sustainable production. Resilience. The systems that allow life to continue.

The 2026 formulation starts precisely there: redesigning the systems that sustain life, beginning with soil.

But 2026 also represents a deeper shift.

Mars Challenge begins to state more explicitly that the problem is not merely finding a solution.

It is preparing people to decide under limits, uncertainty, interdependence and consequences.

This is where concepts such as Earth-Back Thinking, Agency, Real-Life Readiness and Next Human Learning begin to organise more clearly what earlier editions had already been exploring in practice.

The first years are documented primarily under the name Reto Marte.

By 2026, official documentation uses Mars Challenge.

The available archive does not establish a single formal date on which one brand was “renamed” as the other. The story should therefore not be reduced to an artificial rebranding date.

The records show a deeper evolution.

Early presentations frequently described the programme as a competition or hackathon linked to STEAM and space exploration.

In 2026, the strategic architecture explicitly states that Mars Challenge should not be understood simply as “another hackathon”, a STEM competition or an engineering-only challenge.

The field expands.

Engineering remains essential.

But law, management, psychology, education, communication, design, health, international relations, social sciences and the humanities also enter the mission.

The challenge is no longer only about solving a problem.

It is also about learning how to decide together when no single discipline can solve the problem alone.

The language changed.

The scale changed.

The architecture became more complex.

But one idea runs through the entire history:

think through Mars to improve life on Earth.

In the early years, this appeared through solutions designed for application on both planets.

Today, that logic has a name: Earth-Back Thinking.

Design under extreme conditions to return responsible solutions to Earth.

Mars remains the extreme context.

Earth remains the responsibility.