Mission FAQ

Any school-age student is welcome. Mission Mars develops skills through guided, hands-on participation, so no prior engineering experience is required — curiosity, collaboration, and a willingness to learn matter most.

Students form company-style teams, elect a CEO to coordinate the project, and assign tasks by specialisation. Final team formation details are shared with registered families and schools ahead of the programme.

Between 3 and 12 students per company, including the elected leader. You set your exact crew size when you register your team.

In most cases, yes — teams usually form around existing friend groups or classes. Schools registering several teams may balance numbers across cohorts, and your supervising adult will confirm the arrangement for your group.

A one-metre hexagonal modelling board, a mission manual and project log, a pen drive preloaded with technical guidelines, physical and online workshops, and access to shared tools and build areas. The full materials brief is on the Modelling Mars page.

An official Mission Mars T-shirt for presentations, plus anything your team decides to add to the standard kit for its own design. Discuss additions with your supervising adult first, and check the material restrictions.

Adults may advise and encourage, but Mission Mars is a student-led effort. The design, proposal, model, and presentation must remain the students' own work.

The Interplanetary Development Corporation's Request for Proposal sets the full brief: habitats, resource extraction, energy, farming, transport, communications, automation, data systems, spacesuits, community, and commercial viability — plus presentation rules and judging criteria. Download the full document and work through it with your team.

An expert panel scores every proposal and model against six official criteria, then watches a 10-minute presentation with 5 minutes of questions and a 5-minute model walkthrough. Full detail is on the Awards page.

Penalties apply for late submissions and for failing to follow the guidelines. Any team caught editing its proposal or model after submission is disqualified outright. The full list is on the Rules page.

Your supervising adult is the first point of contact for day-to-day questions. Programme contact details are released directly to registered teams — see the footer for what is confirmed so far.

Dates and venue are still to be announced. Registered families are notified first, along with the full mission schedule and cohort information.