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Search missions, concepts, editions and pages in the Mars Challenge ecosystem.
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From a sustainable idea to a real project: six student challenges
A practical guide to turn energy, food, waste, water, mobility or reuse into a student project with a prototype, evidence and real learning.
Learning to decide.
Mars Challenge: learning, decision and responsible action. Explore The Grand Jam 2026 in Getafe, the AI challenge and four missions.
What is Mars Challenge?
Discover Mars Challenge: experiential learning, multidisciplinary teams and human decision-making to turn knowledge into responsible action.
Mars Challenge 2027
The 2027 edition proposes redesigning artificial intelligence within the planet’s physical, environmental and human limits. Mars acts as a stress test to investigate a real tension and propose a responsible return to Earth.
Four missions. Your next question.
The missions are different pathways within the same edition, rather than levels of prestige. Start with your educational stage or community context and compare what each pathway allows you to explore.
PIONEERS
PIONEERS is the school expression of Mars Challenge. It proposes exploring capabilities, roles and possible futures through a real mission before deciding on the next educational stage.
ORIGINALS
ORIGINALS is the higher education expression of Mars Challenge. It mobilises disciplinary knowledge as interdisciplinary judgement and responsible action, allowing an idea to retain authorship and deepen with each revision.
ANCESTRAL · INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
ANCESTRAL opens future design to living knowledge systems, with authority, context and the capacity to contribute to real decisions. Dialogue with science, technology and design must preserve origin, rights and limits on use.
MARS CHALLENGE × NO HUMAN B
The Neuroinclusive Mission maintains the challenge, ambition and responsibility of Mars Challenge while redesigning conditions so that neurodivergent young people can understand, collaborate, decide and demonstrate capability.
Your next step, according to your role.
Participation starts with your context. Explore a path for you, your team, your institution or your community.
Understanding what changed.
Explore the changes Mars Challenge observes, how we document stories and projects, and what each piece of evidence supports.
Ideas keep their journey.
Explore four documented Reto Marte 2023 projects. The catalogue will keep growing until it includes every project.
What we learn, connected.
A place to understand concepts, connect questions and bring Mars Challenge learning into new contexts.
Earth-Back Thinking: use Mars constraints to make better Earth decisions
Learn what Earth-Back Thinking is, how Mars constraints expose hidden assumptions, and why every solution must return to Earth with relevance, viability and responsibility.
Agency
What is Agency? Explore how Mars Challenge connects understanding, judgement, choice, authorship, action and responsibility when there is no predetermined answer.
Real-Life Readiness
Real-Life Readiness is the capacity to mobilize knowledge, judgment, collaboration and responsibility when reality offers no predetermined answer.
Next Human Learning
What Next Human Learning means: learn, unlearn and relearn while strengthening judgement, creativity, collaboration and responsibility in an AI-rich world.
History
Discover how Mars Challenge began in 2023, evolved through Water, Fire and Earth, and grew into an international learning system.
2023 · Genesis
Edition archive: 2023 · Genesis. The year and theme come from the supplied framework. Figures, projects and results for this edition will only be published with supporting documentation.
2024 · Water
Edition archive: 2024 · Water. The year and theme come from the supplied framework. Figures, projects and results for this edition will only be published with supporting documentation.
2025 · Fire
Edition archive: 2025 · Fire. The year and theme come from the supplied framework. Figures, projects and results for this edition will only be published with supporting documentation.
2026 · Earth
Edition archive: 2026 · Earth. The year and theme come from the supplied framework. Figures, projects and results for this edition will only be published with supporting documentation.
The Grand Jam · The international final
The international gathering where Mars Challenge missions and projects converge. An event related to the continuing programme.
About us
Discover who is behind Mars Challenge, why it exists, how it is organised and the principles shaping its global learning mission.
Start with your context.
Send a question, mentoring proposal, participation request or collaboration proposal to the Mars Challenge team.
Why Mars?
Discover why Mars Challenge uses Mars as a stress test for thinking under constraints, challenging assumptions and bringing learning back to Earth.
How it works
See how Mars Challenge works: missions, teams, investigation, decisions, prototypes, Earth-Back Thinking, feedback and next steps.
From a question to a decision you can explain.
Explore the eight stages of the experience: what happens, what is learned and what is preserved at each step.
Teams
Roles, collaboration and shared decisions: how to prepare a team and which requirements await confirmation.
Competition
How learning, presentation and assessment connect. Official rules will be published once confirmed.
Young People
Discover what you will actually do in Mars Challenge: work in a team, investigate, decide, prototype and defend a solution.
Teachers & mentors
Explore the mentor role, teacher development, boundaries and how to participate in Mars Challenge.
Schools & vocational education
Real challenges, projects and mentoring for schools and vocational education.
Universities
A mission for the whole university: multidisciplinary teams, faculty mentors, real challenges, visible projects and national/international pathways.
Families
Understand what young people experience in Mars Challenge, how families should support them and how participation works.
Companies & partners
Connect your company with young talent in action, real challenges, open innovation and an international learning ecosystem.
Cities & governments
Activate young people, institutions and local partners around real challenges through an international learning and innovation framework.
Countries and Mission Partners
Explore a national activation model.
Researchers & education leaders
Formulate questions that can be researched rigorously.
Media
Tell a story that can be verified.
Volunteers
Find a concrete task you can support.
Evaluators
Assess with explicit criteria and traceability.
Foundations & youth organisations
Activate young people, networks and territories through real challenges with Mars Challenge.
Find your place
Your context changes the questions, responsibilities and next step. Choose the path that helps you decide.
Editions
Explore Genesis 2023, Water 2024, Fire 2025 and Earth 2026, and find the current Mars Challenge edition: 2027.
Projects & impact
Projects are the unit of evidence. Stories, institutions, countries, reports and recognition are published when they can be verified.
Questions about Mars Challenge
Find clear answers about what Mars Challenge is, how it works, who can take part, and how its missions, projects, concepts and experiences connect.
Return to Earth
Learning does not end with a presentation. Projects, outcomes and new questions connect one mission to the next.
Methodology
Explore the Mars Challenge methodology: STEAM+, challenge-based learning, Earth-Back Thinking, mentoring, prototyping, assessment and reflection.
What makes it different
How the permanent programme, editions, missions and Earth application connect.
When AI Can Answer, What Should Humans Learn?
AI can generate plausible answers. Human learning must still build knowledge — and the judgment to verify, contextualize, decide and act responsibly.
Why Is Mars a Stress Test for Earth? | Mars Challenge
Mars makes scarcity, interdependence and failure impossible to ignore. That is precisely why it can help us expose hidden weaknesses in systems on Earth.
Why Knowing Is Not Enough to Act | Mars Challenge
Knowledge matters, but it does not automatically become action. Acting requires transfer, judgement, decision, feedback and responsibility.
What Is Challenge-Based Learning? | Mars Challenge
Challenge-Based Learning turns an open question into inquiry, decisions, prototypes, feedback, iteration and transferable learning.
AI and Human Judgment: How to Use AI Without Delegating Responsibility
How to use AI without giving up judgment: a framework for verifying, contextualizing, deciding and keeping human responsibility for consequences.
What Is Interdisciplinarity and How Does It Work? | Mars Challenge
Interdisciplinarity connects specialised knowledge across boundaries so complex problems can be understood and acted on without sacrificing disciplinary rigour.
What Is Experiential Learning? | Mars Challenge
Experiential learning is more than learning by doing. We act, observe consequences, reflect, revise our understanding and act differently next time.
Collaboration and Mentoring: How Other People Improve Our Decisions
Collaboration and mentoring improve decisions by adding knowledge, questions, challenge and feedback without replacing the authorship of the person who decides.
What Are Planetary Limits and How Should They Change Decisions? | Mars Challenge
Every decision depends on finite resources and living systems. Planetary limits make sustainability, consequences and care part of decision quality.
Creativity: How to Generate Useful Alternatives Under Constraints
Useful creativity is more than having ideas. It means breaking assumptions, generating alternatives, working with constraints, prototyping, testing and deciding what deserves to advance.
What Is Neurodiversity and How Should We Design Participation? | Mars Challenge
Recognising neurodiversity means designing participation with people so different ways of thinking can contribute with choice, authorship and dignity.
The Grand Jam 2026
The Grand Jam 2026 is the international final of Mars Challenge 2026. It is scheduled for 3–5 November 2026 in Getafe, Community of Madrid, Spain. Teams present projects, create together and connect the experience on Mars with solutions for Earth.
Equilimind
A Colombian team proposed bringing together biometrics, psychological assessment and physiological signals to explore mental wellbeing in extreme conditions.
M.L.C.S.
A Puerto Rican team proposed connected ecological domes to explore food, oxygen and circular resource management on Mars.
Ayllu-EI
Red Providence proposed a digital companion personalised through family conversations and texts to explore emotional wellbeing during isolation.
R-Fungus
Red-Gaia VII proposed exploring radiotrophic fungi in a modular system to investigate radiation protection in Martian habitats.
The Mars Challenge ecosystem
Mars Challenge, Mars Jam, The Grand Jam and Real-Life Readiness Passport: related components, journeys and contextualised evidence.
Mars Jam
Mars Jam: institutional and territorial activation of Mars Challenge, with host identity and official conditions.
Real-Life Readiness Passport
Real-Life Readiness Passport: a personal cumulative evidence record, achievements and six dimensions. Model, privacy and limitations.
Mars Challenge vs Hackathons: What Is the Difference?
Mars Challenge can use hackathon dynamics, but it is a broader learning system built around research, judgement, prototyping, feedback, responsibility and Earth-Back Thinking.
Comparisons: concepts, formats and learning
Compare related concepts and formats to understand what they share, where they differ and how they connect with Mars Challenge.
Mars Challenge vs NASA Space Apps: What Is the Difference?
Compare NASA Space Apps’ global open-data hackathon with Mars Challenge’s learning journey: purpose, teams, projects, mentoring and Earth-Back Thinking.
Mars Challenge vs iGEM: What Is the Difference?
Compare iGEM and Mars Challenge: synthetic biology, Human Practices, teams, evidence and a learning architecture where the problem determines the disciplines.
Mars Challenge vs Robotics Competitions: What Is the Difference?
Compare Mars Challenge with FIRST, VEX, RoboCup and WRO: robotics as a shared medium versus problems that determine the disciplines and solutions needed.
Mars Challenge vs Hult Prize: What Is the Difference?
Compare Hult Prize and Mars Challenge: impact startups, business models and scaling versus a learning journey that keeps the form of response open.
Mars Challenge vs Enactus: What Is the Difference?
Compare Enactus and Mars Challenge: entrepreneurial action, business principles and measurable impact versus interdisciplinary judgement and open response forms.
Mars Challenge vs Formula Student: What Is the Difference?
Compare Formula Student and Mars Challenge: engineering depth around a defined vehicle versus open problems, evidence and interdisciplinary judgement.
Mars Challenge vs RoboCup: What Is the Difference?
Compare RoboCup and Mars Challenge: robotics and AI research through benchmark competitions versus interdisciplinary human judgement and responsible action.
Mars Challenge vs ESA CanSat: What Is the Difference?
Compare ESA CanSat and Mars Challenge: a school-level miniature satellite engineering mission versus open problems, evidence and interdisciplinary judgement.
Mars Challenge vs the Traditional Classroom: What Changes?
From knowledge to responsible action: compare conventional instruction and Mars Challenge, with evidence, teacher guidance, AI and the limits of each architecture.