Design Competition

For Students

Your Role during the design competition is to:

Be committed!

Throughout the spring semester, you will work with your teammates to brainstorm, research, and design a habitat in a Lunar Lava Tube.

Be creative!

You will build a 3D model of your habitat from recyclables. You can gather recyclables from home and your community.

Be dedicated!

You will work with your mentor and listen to guest speakers who are experts in space architecture, engineering, space exploration and more!

Over the course of the spring semester, you will support your students as they brainstorm, problem-solve, research, and implement the engineering design process. NWAY will work with you to connect your students with STEM mentors who will provide students with feedback on their projects. Together, this STEM-ecosystem helps students build 21st-century skills including creativity, communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and much, much more!
Want to get a head start?

Learn more about the Moon and Lunar Lava Tubes by downloading the PDFs below!

About the Moon

Download the PDF

Lunar Lava Tubes

Download the PDF

Want more?

Here are some cool videos about the Moon, Lunar Lava Tubes, and exploration technology!

Want to see what students have done?

Check out this photo gallery from past lunar habitat competitions from NWAY partners.

Keep Up With NWAY

Follow us on social media for cool Space STEM videos, links, and other resources and check out recent NWAY news below.

Out of this World

NASA awards $750K grant to local nonprofit, WEX Foundation, for after-school STEM programming through New Worlds Await You.

NASA Awards Grants to Nine Informal Learning Institutions

NASA has awarded almost $10 million in grants to informal education organizations in seven states to help inspire the next generation of scientists and explorers. Read the full article here.

New Worlds Await You: National STEM Challenges for Student Space Exploration

The New Worlds Await You program uses our partner organization, Communities In Schools (CIS) national network, active in 25 states with 133 CIS affiliates serving at-risk students in over 363 school districts and 2,300 K-12 sites as the venue for student participation...

NWAY Partners

By helping to fund our programs for motivated Middle and High School students with an interest in exploring space, you advance 21st century careers for underrepresented minorities, female, and economically disadvantaged students.

Support a space
exploration pioneer