Mars Challenge
Mars Challenge is the world's first dual-planet innovation platform.
We invite young people from 15 to 29 years of age – the Zers – to imagine, design and prototype solutions to the great challenges of the present and the future.
Using space as a laboratory and Mars as a mirror, we drive the creation of technologies, ideas and collaborations that directly impact life on Earth.
From rural schools to top universities, from emerging startups to space agencies: Mars Challenge is the meeting point where youth transform curiosity into impact, education into legacy,
and science into purpose.
Hacking the future with education, creativity and impact.
Mars Challenge is born to inspire a generation of explorers, inventors and leaders who not only dream of reaching Mars, but of healing the Earth.
We train young people in technical and human skills – STEAM, leadership, sustainability, collaboration – as they prototype technologies applicable to extreme contexts. What they design for Mars changes lives on Earth.
A more sustainable planet Earth and a humanity prepared for the interplanetary leap.
We dream of a global community of young leaders who, from their territories, universities and communities, respond to the great challenges of our time with creativity, science and conscience.
Mars Challenge is the catalyst for this transformation.
Mars is not just a destination.
It is a mirror that reveals our own fragilities: water scarcity, limited energy, polluted air, lost balance.Facing the challenge of surviving on Mars forces us to rethink how we live on Earth.
Because global challenges do not wait.
Climate change, water crisis, mental health, unregulated technologies… the future is being designed today.And it cannot be done by a generation of spectators, but by a generation of protagonists.
Who participates?
The protagonists of the Mars Challenge are the Zers: young people between the ages of 15 and 29 with the courage to imagine the impossible and the desire to build a better future.
Together with them, educators, universities, cities, companies and strategic allies weave a global network of educational, scientific and social innovation.
- Double whammy: what works on Mars, transforms Earth.
- STEAM + Human Skills: science, art, ethics and technology in the service of life.
- SDGs as a compass: each project is aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
- Replication effect: knowledge does not stay in the event, it multiplies in communities.
Mars Challenge is born in 2023 as part of the Space Talent Lab 2030 initiative, driven by Virtual Educa.
Since then, it has grown to include thousands of young people and teachers from all over Ibero-America.
Each year, the program focuses on one of the 7 key elements: Water, Fire, Earth, Air, Consciousness, Technology and Balance.
Each issue is a new frontier that challenges Zers to think outside the box – and act here and now.
“You’re made of star-stuff.
So hack the future.”
