The 2025 NASA Space Apps Challenge was held on October 4-5, 2025. This challenge is now closed.

Summary

Although the Sun is 93 million miles away from our planet, solar activity can significantly impact our daily lives. “Space weather”—the variations that occur in the space environment between the Sun and Earth—can impact technologies in space and on Earth. Your challenge is to write and illustrate a digital children’s story that explains what space weather is and the varying impacts it has on different people such as farmers, pilots, astronauts, power grid operators, and the general public. You can tell the story from the perspective of a person impacted by space weather or from the point of view of a solar flare or coronal mass ejection (CME) as it approaches Earth.

Background

The term “space weather” refers to the variations that occur in the space environment between the Sun and Earth, across the solar system, and at each planet, including phenomena such as solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and the solar wind—all of which can impact technologies in space and on Earth. Although the Sun is 93 million miles away from our planet, its activity can significantly impact our daily lives in ways we may not realize. Solar flares, CMEs, the solar wind, and solar particle events directed towards Earth can cause beautiful auroras as well as other more challenging societal impacts like Global Positioning System (GPS) signal disruption, loss of radio communications, and financial implications. A significant solar storm hitting Earth has the potential to cause billions of dollars in losses globally due to radio blackouts.

While space weather has existed for billions of years, the impacts appear stronger today more than ever due to the heavy societal dependency on technology and infrastructure. It can be assumed that space weather effects will only grow in significance as our use of technology and our dependence on it grow over time.

One component that makes space weather particularly interesting is the fact that we are still learning which end-user communities are impacted by the phenomena and in what ways. As more research is done and further conversations with known user communities like farmers are conducted, additional details about space weather impacts become clarified. Space weather can impact everyone’s lives, and the space weather community is working tirelessly to understand the specifics of these impacts and the needs of those impacted to determine ways to mitigate space weather effects.

Objectives

Your challenge is to write and illustrate a digital children’s story that explains what space weather is and the varying impacts it has on different communities. You can tell your story from the perspective of a person impacted by space weather or from the point of view of a solar flare or CME as it approaches Earth. There is plenty of publicly available information from NASA about space weather and its impacts! Can you creatively use that information to tell the story of space weather in a unique and factual way that is easy to understand?

If you choose to tell your story from the perspective of a person, it can be anyone that experiences the effects of space weather first-hand such as astronauts, pilots, taxi/ride share drivers, farmers, park rangers, teachers, chefs, fishers, scientists, engineers, video game producers, lifeguards, photographers, artists, accountants, informational technology (IT) workers, electricians, and more. For example, the story of space weather told from the perspective of a photographer might include tales of chasing and photographing beautiful auroras as well as the experiences that accompany these adventures.

If your story is told from the perspective of a person impacted by space weather, you could include the following elements:

Definition of space weather
A few examples of how space weather impacts Earth
A clearly defined character whose point of view will be used to tell the story. For instance:
- What is the person’s name?
- How old are they?
- What do they do?
- How are they connected to space weather?
- What challenges do they face?
Explanation of how space weather directly and indirectly impacts the person’s life and work.

You can also tell the story from the perspective of a solar flare or CME traveling to Earth. If you choose this perspective, you could include:

Definition of space weather
Definition of a solar flare or CME (whichever you choose as your character)
A few examples of how space weather impacts Earth
Character traits for the solar flare or CME; for example:
- What is the solar flare or CME’s name?
- Describe its personality.
- Does this solar flare or CME travel to Earth on purpose, or is it an accident, or driven to Earth by some other force?
Explanation of what the solar flare or CME experiences on its way to Earth
Description of the things on Earth it impacts on its journey

Whichever perspective you choose, don’t forget to include images or illustrations to help tell the story!

Potential Considerations

You may (but are not required to) consider the following:

Your target audience can include elementary, middle, or high school students—or students at multiple levels!
Can you focus on compelling storytelling through data visualizations?
Think about how you could depict the impact of space weather on the lives of those on Earth.

For data and resources related to this challenge, refer to the Resources tab at the top of the page.

Stellar Stories: Space Weather Through the Eyes of Earthlings