▶ Video
A Solar Tale (HerCode Space)
A digital children's story narrated by the Sun that explains how space weather touches daily life, with science sourced from NASA and NOAA.
Read reference →
agency open data challenge
NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2025
Organized by NASA Space Apps Global Organizing Team (funded by NASA's Earth Science Division).
- Dates
- 4–5 Oct 2025
- Format
- hybrid
- Where
- 551 in-person and virtual Local Events plus the virtual Universal Event
- Participants
- 114,000
- Teams
- 18,860
- Team size
- 1-6
- Results
- partial
How it is judged
| Criterion | Lens | What judges look for |
|---|---|---|
| Impact | impact | How much good the project can do, in quality and quantity; a big or a small problem; helps many or few. Called 'Influence' in the 2024 guide. |
| Creativity | originality | How novel the approach is, versus an incremental improvement on something that exists. |
| Validity | scientific validity | Scientifically valid; does what it sets out to do; can work in the real world. |
| Relevance | challenge relevance | Responsive to the chosen challenge; complete; technically feasible; usable. |
| Presentation | storytelling pitch | How well the team tells the story: the challenge, the proposed solution and why it matters. |
Judges. Three phases. Local and Universal Event judges choose Global Nominees (about one per ten projects in the 2024 guide); NASA and Space Agency Partner subject-matter experts choose 45 Global Finalists plus Honorable Mentions; an executive committee of agency leaders assigns the 10 Global Awards.
Each criterion is scored 1–5 at every level. Local Awards are separate and do not qualify a team for global judging.
Prizes and lanes
| Prize | Reward | Criteria |
|---|---|---|
| Best Use of Science The best and most valid use of science and/or the scientific method. | — |
|
| Best Use of Data Best makes space data accessible or leverages it for a unique application. | — |
|
| Best Use of Technology The most innovative use of technology. | — |
|
| Galactic Impact The most potential to improve life on Earth or in the universe. | — |
|
| Best Mission Concept The most plausible concept and design. | — |
|
| Most Inspirational The project that captures our hearts. | — |
|
| Best Use of Storytelling Most creatively communicates the potential of open data through the art of storytelling. | — |
|
| Global Connection Best connects people around the world through technology. | — |
|
| Art & Technology Most effectively combines technical and creative skills. | — |
|
| Local Impact The greatest potential for local impact. | — |
|
Known results
▶ Video
AakashNet (Photonics Odyssey)
Satellite broadband for India designed as sovereign national infrastructure: low-cost phased-array terminals linked to a laser-meshed LEO constellation.
Read reference →
Source links
Astro Sweepers
Orbital debris compliance and risk intelligence: automated Debris Assessment Software runs, ready-to-file disposal reports and a risk index for every object.
Read reference →
Source links
Gaia+LEO
Optimization model that decides when and where orbital data centers beat terrestrial ones for AI and Earth-observation compute.
Read reference →
Source links
Henry's Farm Adventures (Zumorroda-X)
A story-driven farming game: travel with Henry to farmers facing floods, heat, drought and salty soil, and solve each with real NASA satellite data.
Read reference →
Source links
▶ Video
PureFlow
A habitat layout tool that doubles as a survival simulator: model in 3D, compute crew needs live, and test the design against real solar-storm alerts.
Read reference →
Source links
▶ Video
QUEÑARIS
Smart reforestation of Arequipa's queñua forests against water scarcity, combining NASA vegetation indices, drone mapping, AI and native microorganisms.
Read reference →
Source links
▶ Video
Resonant Exoplanets
End-to-end pipeline that finds exoplanets in Kepler, TESS and JWST data and checks possible biosignatures against false positives.
Read reference →
Source links
SkySense (Team Twisters)
Ultra-local, personalized weather risk from NASA Earth observation data, with the safest time window for your activity.
Read reference →
Source links
SpaceGenes+
Interactive dashboard showing how radiation and microgravity together affect astronaut health at the molecular level.
Read reference →
Source links
Submissions and base rates
winners only roster. 10 of 18,860 teams indexed. These counts describe what CrafterWIKI indexed, not what the event produced — do not read them as base rates.
| Project | Placement | Track | Domains |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Solar Tale (HerCode Space) A digital children's story narrated by the Sun that explains how space weather touches daily life, with science sourced from NASA and NOAA. | Award winner | Stellar Stories: Space Weather Through the Eyes of Earthlings |
|
| AakashNet (Photonics Odyssey) Satellite broadband for India designed as sovereign national infrastructure: low-cost phased-array terminals linked to a laser-meshed LEO constellation. | Award winner | Commercializing Low Earth Orbit (LEO) |
|
| Astro Sweepers Orbital debris compliance and risk intelligence: automated Debris Assessment Software runs, ready-to-file disposal reports and a risk index for every object. | Award winner | Commercializing Low Earth Orbit (LEO) |
|
| Gaia+LEO Optimization model that decides when and where orbital data centers beat terrestrial ones for AI and Earth-observation compute. | Award winner | Commercializing Low Earth Orbit (LEO) |
|
| Henry's Farm Adventures (Zumorroda-X) A story-driven farming game: travel with Henry to farmers facing floods, heat, drought and salty soil, and solve each with real NASA satellite data. | Award winner | NASA Farm Navigators: Using NASA Data Exploration in Agriculture |
|
| PureFlow A habitat layout tool that doubles as a survival simulator: model in 3D, compute crew needs live, and test the design against real solar-storm alerts. | Award winner | Your Home in Space: The Habitat Layout Creator |
|
| QUEÑARIS Smart reforestation of Arequipa's queñua forests against water scarcity, combining NASA vegetation indices, drone mapping, AI and native microorganisms. | Award winner | BloomWatch: An Earth Observation Application for Global Flowering Phenology |
|
| Resonant Exoplanets End-to-end pipeline that finds exoplanets in Kepler, TESS and JWST data and checks possible biosignatures against false positives. | Award winner | A World Away: Hunting for Exoplanets with AI |
|
| SkySense (Team Twisters) Ultra-local, personalized weather risk from NASA Earth observation data, with the safest time window for your activity. | Award winner | Will It Rain on My Parade? |
|
| SpaceGenes+ Interactive dashboard showing how radiation and microgravity together affect astronaut health at the molecular level. | Award winner | Build a Space Biology Knowledge Engine |
|
Priors from other agency open data challenge events
Mechanisms and lenses among 10 confirmed winners from 1 other event of this kind.
Mechanisms
Judging lenses
Organizer takeaways
- Many teams do well on the first four criteria and under-invest in presentation; devote real time to the pitch and story, and recruit storytelling and design skills.
- The 10 winning teams came from 8 countries and territories, selected from 18,860 participating teams.
Curator note. Tracks list only the 8 of 18 challenges that produced a Global Winner. Three of the ten awards went to 'Commercializing LEO' — a count among winners, not a base rate. Team pages render client-side and could not be extracted on 2026-09-14, so project analyses rest on NASA's announcement. NASA publishes member names abbreviated; CrafterWIKI stores team size only.
Use this brief
crafterwiki event nasa-space-apps-2025
Sources
- https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/stem-engagement-at-nasa/nasa-announces-2025-international-space-apps-challenge-global-winners/ — 10 Global Winners with award, challenge, country and description; 114,000+ participants, 551 events, 167 countries, 11,500+ submissions.
- https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/2025/awards/ — Award definitions and the three judging phases.
- https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/2025/awards/global-finalists/ — 45 Global Finalists (count only; list not indexed).
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAm_2GB7PGc — Official 2025 Project Submission and Judging & Awards video: criteria names, 1–5 scale, AI disclosure, deadline.
- https://www.scribd.com/document/876777314/Judging-Awards-Guideline — Third-party-hosted copy of the organizer's 2024 Judging & Awards guide (criteria definitions, presentation advice); the official guide page did not render.
- https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/2025/meet-the-2025-global-winners/ — 18,860 teams; winners from 8 countries and territories.
- https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/2025/challenges/ — 18 challenges (list rendered client-side; only the 8 with a Global Winner are listed as tracks).