On 3, 4 and 5 October, Murcia will join the NASA International SpaceApps Challenge, the largest STEAM hackathon in the world, for the first time. The event, to be held at UCAM HiTech, the UCAM innovation and business acceleration hub, will bring together students, professionals and science and technology enthusiasts who will be challenged to put their creativity to the test in response to 19 international challenges set by NASA. Registration is now open and can be done through the official event website.

Under the slogan ‘¡Aprende, Lanza, Lidera!’ (Learn, Launch, Lead!), teams will be able to choose from a wide range of challenges ranging from identifying sharks to revolutionising recycling on Mars. These are the international challenges that participants in the NASA SpaceApps Challenge 2025 will face:

1. Terra Data animated celebration. Design an animation showing the impact of the Terra satellite in its 25 years of Earth observation, using real data from its instruments.

2. A World Away: Hunting for Exoplanets with AI. Create an artificial intelligence model that automatically detects new exoplanets from open data from space missions.

3. BloomWatch: An Earth Observation Application for Global Flowering Phenology. Develop an application that uses satellite images to identify global plant flowering and help manage the planet's vegetation.

4. Build a Space Biology Knowledge Engine. Build an interactive AI-powered dashboard that summarises scientific research on biological experiments in space.

5. Commercialising Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Propose a sustainable and scalable business model that leverages the opportunities of low Earth orbit.

6. Create Your Own Challenge. Option for teams to design their own challenge, although it will not compete for global prizes.

7. Data Pathways to Healthy Cities and Human Settlements. Design smart urban growth plans based on Earth observation data to protect health and the environment from climate change.

8. Deep Dive: Immersive Data Stories from Ocean to Sky. Generate virtual reality experiences that convey the importance of the oceans and the atmosphere using satellite data.

9. Embiggen Your Eyes! Develop a platform to explore, zoom in on, and tag ultra-high-resolution space images.

10. From EarthData to Action: Cloud Computing with Earth Observation Data for Predicting Cleaner, Safer Skies. Create an application that combines real-time data to predict air quality and support public health decisions.

The main objective of the NASA SpaceAPPS Hackathon is to highlight and give visibility to the extraordinary digital talent in Spain.

11. International Space Station 25th Anniversary Apps. Develop a visual tool that recreates the experience of seeing Earth from the ISS and living in microgravity.

12. Meteor Madness. Design an application that simulates asteroid impacts with real data, showing risks and possible solutions.

13. NASA Farm Navigators: Using NASA Data Exploration in Agriculture. Create an educational game about sustainable agriculture based on NASA satellite and climate data.

14. Sharks from Space. Develop a mathematical and technological system to identify sharks from space and track their feeding habits.

15. SpaceTrash Hack: Revolutionising Recycling on Mars. Design a system to recycle and reuse inorganic waste on Mars during manned missions.

16. Stellar Stories: Space Weather Through the Eyes of Earthlings. Create an illustrated digital story that explains in an accessible way what space weather is and how it affects Earth.

17. Through the Radar Looking Glass: Revealing Earth Processes with SAR. Analyse an area with SAR data to discover terrestrial phenomena that cannot be observed with the naked eye.

18. Will It Rain On My Parade? Create an application that predicts the probability of bad weather at a specific location and date using Earth observation data.

19. Your Home in Space: The Habitat Layout Creator. Design an interactive tool to project space habitats that keep crews healthy on extended missions.

Álvaro Montoliu, Space APPS member in Spain, highlighted that the main objective of the NASA SpaceAPPS Hackathon is to highlight and give visibility to the extraordinary digital talent in Spain. ‘Our country is one of those with the highest number of participants each year, an achievement that would not be possible without the support of local initiatives. This shows the remarkable interest and commitment there is in Spain to technological innovation’. Likewise, for Montoliu, these types of events represent authentic hotbeds of ideas and projects that strengthen Spain's global influence in the field of science and technology.

In the latest edition, the hackathon brought together more than 450 participants in seven Spanish cities and exceeded 9,900 projects registered worldwide. Among them was Landsat Connect, created in Asturias, which was recognised as one of the best international projects.
With the incorporation of Murcia in this edition, the region joins this global map of innovation, providing a unique opportunity to showcase the talent of our Region and project it internationally.