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Registration Now Open for the 2024 NASA International Space Apps Challenge

This year’s hackathon will be held Oct 5 and 6 and feature NASA-created challenges along with 400 local events around the world.
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Joseph M. Smith
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Registration for the 2024 NASA International Space Apps Challenge—a global hackathon for coders and creatives, scientists, innovators, and storytellers—is now open.

During the NASA Space Apps Challenge, participants around the world gather at hundreds of in-person and virtual local events to address challenges submitted by subject matter experts across NASA divisions. These challenges range in complexity and topic, tasking participants with everything from creating artistic visualizations of NASA data to conceptualizing and developing informational apps and software programs.

In keeping with this year’s theme—The Sun Touches Everything—NASA Space Apps invites participants to consider the far-reaching influence of the Sun on Earth and space science. The theme connects participants with NASA’s Heliophysics Division’s celebration of The Heliophysics Big Year. NASA's Earth Science Data Systems (ESDS) Program provides many openly available data collections related to Sun/Earth interactions that can be explored and downloaded using Earthdata Search.

The Challenges

The 2024 NASA Space Apps Challenge features 20 challenges and invites participants to use NASA’s free and open data and data from its space agency partners to propose solutions to real-world problems we face on Earth and in space.

Several of this year's Space Apps challenges feature NASA Earth observation data, including:

  • Leveraging Earth Observation Data for Informed Agricultural Decision-Making: Design a tool that empowers farmers to easily explore, analyze, and utilize NASA datasets to address water-related concerns and improve their farming practices
  • PACE in the Classroom: Create a set of materials that can be used in classrooms around the world to help students understand the data and information gathered by the Plankton Aerosol Cloud ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite and improve ocean literacy worldwide; PACE data are available through Earthdata Search as well as through NASA's Ocean Biology Distributed Active Archive Center (OB.DAAC)
  • Community Mapping: Use geographic information systems (GIS) and other mapping technologies to create a map that incorporates open science data to explore the ways in which the surrounding physical geography shapes an issue (e.g., pollution, water use, etc.) in the team's community
  • Landsat Reflectance Data: On the Fly and at Your Fingertips: Develop a web-based application that supports the comparison of ground-based observations with Landsat data by allowing users to define a target location, receive notifications when Landsat is to pass over that location, and then access and display the corresponding Landsat surface reflectance data
  • Uncover the Role of Greenhouse Gases in Your Neighborhood: Use a combination of satellite and model-based datasets to map both human-caused and natural greenhouse gas emissions to enable a better understanding of how these emissions contribute to a warmer world

The Hackathon and Registration

The NASA Space Apps Challenge begins October 5 at 9:00 a.m. (local time) and ends October 6 at 11:59 p.m. (local time), when project submissions are due. However, many hackathon activities start before October 5, so once participants register for the NASA Space Apps Challenge they should choose a local event (or the virtual Universal Event) to connect with the community, explore the challenges, and start forming their teams. Interested participants may register for the 2024 NASA Space Apps Challenge and choose a virtual or in-person local event at spaceappschallenge.org.

After the hackathon, project submissions are judged by space agency experts. Winners are selected for one of 10 global awards and may be invited to an in-person celebration with NASA leadership and subject matter experts.

Connect with Space Apps

Stay up to date with #SpaceApps by following these accounts:

Background and Agency International Partners

Since its inception in 2012, NASA's Space Apps Challenge has engaged more than 280,000 people from more than 185 countries/territories. In 2024, NASA is joined by 15 international space agency partners, including the Australian Space Agency, Brazilian Space Agency, CSA (Canadian Space Agency), ESA (European Space Agency), ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), Italian Space Agency, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), Mexican Space Agency, National Space Activities Commission of Argentina, National Space Science Agency of Bahrain, Paraguayan Space Agency, South African National Space Agency, Spanish Space Agency, Turkish Space Agency, and the Communications, Space and Technology Commission of Saudi Arabia. Participation from NASA's space agency partners encourages more extensive global collaboration and provides a broader platform for participants to contribute to the fields of Earth and space science and technology through the NASA Space Apps Challenge.

NASA Space Apps is funded by NASA's Earth Science Division through a contract with Booz Allen Hamilton, Mindgrub, and SecondMuse. The theme for the 2024 NASA Space Apps Challenge is funded by the NASA Heliophysics Division.

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