The Stardust Challenge 2026

The results

The five finalist teams presented live on 5 November 2026 and the judges scored them as they presented. Here is how it finished.

First
UMIC（Ursa Minor Interstellar Citizens）
45.0of 50
Second
3Link
40.0of 50
Third
Los Mumen
39.2of 50
#TeamCategories ledPanel score
1 UMIC（Ursa Minor Interstellar Citizens） 5 judges scored this team The Astronaut & Human Spaceflight Challenge · Space Habitats & Human Living Beyond Earth 45.0 / 50
2 3Link 5 judges scored this team Space Technology, Robotics & AI Systems 40.0 / 50
3 Los Mumen 4 judges scored this team Space Science, Exploration & Discovery 39.2 / 50
4 The Pendragons 4 judges scored this team Earth, Space & Sustainability 37.8 / 50
5 Aether Dynamics 4 judges scored this team Space Culture, Media & Creative Expression · Space Economy, Policy & Governance · Space Transportation & Access to Space 34.2 / 50

The semi-final: how every entry placed in its category

49 entries from 83 teams were read and scored by 12 judges on five criteria: originality, rigour, impact, presentation, teamwork. The top entry in each of the eight categories went through to the final. 48 entries are ranked here.

Earth, Space & Sustainability

4 entries scored
1 The PendragonsTo the final Project Camelot 36.0 / 50
2 Aether Dynamics Quantifying the Contribution of Satellite Earth Observation to Climate-Resilient Disaster Risk Management: A Multi-Hazard Assessment Framework 35.5 / 50
3 Astro777 OrbitCare AI: Space Debris Tracking, Risk Assessment and Removal Planning 35.0 / 50
4 Paweł Aderek P2L — Plastic To Life: Enzyme Engineering for Closed-Loop PVC Recycling in Resource-Limited Environments 34.0 / 50

Space Culture, Media & Creative Expression

2 entries scored
1 Aether DynamicsTo the final Measuring Public Accessibility and Representation in Space Communication: A Data-Driven Analysis of Contemporary Space Media 35.0 / 50
2 AstroNRF Sweetu's Sunny Smile : A Stellar Story 34.3 / 50

Space Economy, Policy & Governance

5 entries scored
1 Aether DynamicsTo the final Public Investment and Space-Sector Outcomes: A Comparative Framework for Evaluating Institutional Capacity and Implementation Efficiency 39.5 / 50
1 elite global SPACE-LICENCE: Who Gets to Use Commercial Space Data? 39.5 / 50
3 AstroNRF MY MOONAR 39.0 / 50
4 Manuela Costa Ferreira Lopes de Matos Beyond Orbit: Democratizing the Global Space Economy 37.5 / 50
5 Jessie Jerral Rodriguez From Satellite Data to Decisions: A Global Disaster Earth Observation Request-to-Action Protocol for Strengthening Disaster Response 36.0 / 50

Space Habitats & Human Living Beyond Earth

14 entries scored
1 UMIC（Ursa Minor Interstellar Citizens）To the final Space Commons: A Portable Indoor Lunar Farm for Global Analog Missions 38.3 / 50
2 Puspalok Pushpalok: A Lotus-Inspired Space Habitat 38.2 / 50
3 Lençóis Station Lençóis Cósmicos Greenhouse – An Interstellar Botanical Haven 38.0 / 50
4 Desert Sky Team LUNAR-SWARM: Autonomous Multi-Robot Coordination for Lunar Construction 37.5 / 50
4 UMBRAL Water Bear Mode 37.5 / 50
6 Kani Aruzhan stardust 37.2 / 50
7 Soliana Girma · 8FC2 Project ASIS 35.5 / 50
8 VITALIS SealWatch 34.3 / 50
9 Aether Dynamics Multi-Objective Optimization of Closed-Loop Life-Support Architectures for Lunar Habitats Under Resource and Failure Constraints 34.2 / 50
10 MOONLIGHT Exploring Biological Conditioning of Lunar Regolith Simulant with Helianthus annuus L. Toward Sustainable Agriculture Beyond Earth 32.7 / 50
11 Lazurite Mission Kelper II 32.0 / 50
11 Sanskriti Gawade Integration of traditional medicine into space medicine 32.0 / 50
13 Noah SpaceSkin 31.0 / 50
14 Jerome Moon And Mars Habitat Design 23.0 / 50

Space Science, Exploration & Discovery

4 entries scored
1 Los MumenTo the final Space Gas Stations: Assessing Extraterrestrial Resources for Refueling Future Space Missions 35.0 / 50
2 Aether Dynamics A Multi-Criteria Framework for Prioritizing Solar-System Targets for Habitability and Biosignature Investigation 33.0 / 50
3 SpaceX Mapping the Invisible Universe: A 175-Galaxy Test of Dark-Matter Halo Structure 30.5 / 50
4 Jigeesha Mondal Can We Hear the Universe? Exploring Astronomical Data Through Scientific Sonification 25.0 / 50

Space Technology, Robotics & AI Systems

15 entries scored
1 3LinkTo the final Joint reconfigurable onboard scene triage and downlink admission for a disaster-monitoring CubeSat swarm under scarce contact windows 36.3 / 50
2 LC Engineering Multi-Stage Regolith Barriers for Dust-Resistant Lunar Rover Wheel-Axle Systems 36.0 / 50
3 Adaptive Perception o Regolith Lab Lightweight difficulty-adaptive early-exit inference for lunar surface segmentation on flight-representative embedded hardware 35.0 / 50
4 Kani Aruzhan ECHO MEDIC 34.0 / 50
5 Aether Dynamics Fault-Tolerant Multi-Robot Task Allocation for Autonomous Lunar Surface Operations Under Communication and Energy Constraints 31.7 / 50
5 Possible Kids PHOENIX 31.7 / 50
5 TheGreats ORBIAGE: Making Satellite Anomaly Detection More Reliable Through AI 31.7 / 50
8 vbovu MARSTRACE 31.0 / 50
9 Cassiopeia ARES Suit 30.7 / 50
10 Innovative solutions ECO-GRIP: Soft Adaptive Biomimetic Gripper for Space Debris Capture 29.3 / 50
11 Fiza Batool AI-Powered Autonomous Rover for Space Exploration 28.3 / 50
11 Holic'a Plaza MINIONS 28.3 / 50
13 HF NOVA Adaptive In-Situ Manufacturing for Spacecraft Spare Parts 26.3 / 50
14 Alexandria's Design Space Learning Lab Mission Debrief: A Human-Centered AI Learning System for Space Operations 24.3 / 50
15 Jerome Space Tech Realized 1.0 / 50

Space Transportation & Access to Space

1 entry scored
1 Aether DynamicsTo the final Multi-Objective Optimization of Cislunar Transfer Architectures Under Δv, Time-of-Flight, and Propellant Constraints 31.5 / 50

The Astronaut & Human Spaceflight Challenge

3 entries scored
1 UMIC（Ursa Minor Interstellar Citizens）To the final UMIC: A Modular Underwater Analog Astronaut Training System 39.0 / 50
2 Aether Dynamics A Mission-Risk Framework for Human Deep-Space Operations: Integrating Cognitive Workload, Communication Delay, Isolation, and Crew Autonomy 33.3 / 50
3 HDcore Human-State Mission Qualification 31.3 / 50

How the numbers work. Every score here is the mean of the judges' totals for that entry or team, out of 50, counted from the judges' own score sheets. Judges did not all score every entry, so a mean is used rather than a sum: adding totals would reward whoever happened to be read by more judges. Where two entries finished level, they are shown level.

What is not here. Which judge gave which score, and the names of the people on each team. The panel speaks with one voice, and the teams include students whose names are theirs to publish, not ours.

The Stardust Challenge is free to enter, open to any age anywhere, and runs again from January 2027. Read about it.