About this competition
HUNCH stands for High School Students United with NASA to Create Hardware, and the name is literal. Participating classrooms manufacture parts, design software, prototype flight hardware, and develop food products that NASA evaluates for genuine use — some of it ends up aboard the International Space Station.
This is a classroom program rather than an open-entry competition: a teacher applies for the school to participate, and the work happens during the school year as part of a machining, engineering, culinary, or software course. Students work to NASA specifications with NASA engineers reviewing progress.
Worth understanding before you get excited: availability depends entirely on whether a school near you participates. If your child's school has a machine shop or a strong engineering program, ask whether HUNCH is an option. If it does not participate, there is no individual path in.
Season & deadlines
Schools apply in the spring for the following academic year; students join through a participating class, not individually.
Season window: August through May.
Cost
Free — No student cost. NASA supplies project requirements and materials support to participating schools.
Prizes & outcomes
Selected designs are manufactured for or flown to the International Space Station; annual recognition event