--- title: NASA Wins Halloween With Their Pumpkin Carving Skills description: Pumpkin carving meets rocket science canonical: https://time.com/4547909/nasa-wins-halloween-with-superior-pumpkin-carving-skills/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-28T16:24:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:38:06.471Z og:title: NASA Wins Halloween With Elaborate Carved Pumpkins og:description: Pumpkin carving meets rocket science og:url: https://time.com/4547909/nasa-wins-halloween-with-superior-pumpkin-carving-skills/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte9aaf882939eb195/6988abfc196cf477df03dbe0/nasa-pumkin-carving.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Pumpkin carved as a galaxy of shooting stars and planets og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: NASA Wins Halloween With Elaborate Carved Pumpkins twitter:description: Pumpkin carving meets rocket science twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte9aaf882939eb195/6988abfc196cf477df03dbe0/nasa-pumkin-carving.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # NASA Wins Halloween With Superior Pumpkin Carving Skills > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Oct 28, 2016 4:24 PM UTC  Getty Images by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Oct 28, 2016 4:24 PM UTC The [NASA](http://time.com/4520381/next-president-nasa/?iid=sr-link2) Jet Propulsion Laboratory held their annual pumpkin carving contest on Thursday and it turns out that carving pumpkins is rocket science. The contest, which is held at the California lab made famous in [_The_ _Martian_](http://time.com/4055413/martian-movie-review-science-accuracy-matt-damon/?iid=sr-link1),showed what can happen when you combine science and engineering with pumpkins. There were a few fabulous, but fairly standard entries, like a PAC-MAN pumpkin, a Darth Vader Jack O’Lantern, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton pumpkins, and an impressive _Stranger Things_ [inspired entry,](https://twitter.com/YazzieSays/status/791726426223280128) but no [Neil deGrasse Tyson](http://time.com/4193114/neil-degrasse-tyson-bob-earth-flat/?iid=sr-link1) pumpkin. However the scientists and engineers who work at NASA’s lab set themselves apart from run-of-the-mill pumpkin carvers with the entries that combined gourds with cold hard science and a touch of [Halloween](http://time.com/4546366/best-viral-halloween-costumes-2016/?iid=sr-link1) magic. NASA JPL mechanical engineer [Aaron Yazzie ](https://twitter.com/YazzieSays)shared many of the entries on Twitter and they offer a bounty of ideas for your own Halloween pumpkins. For starters, check out the pumpkin carved as a stand-in for the Mars Rover complete with a glowing green light and a _Forrest Gump_ quote, that may be an inside NASA joke. > [](https://twitter.com/YazzieSays/status/791725970612813829) Then there’s this glowing Martian return mission pumpkin with lights and a cow spinning away in a vortex: > [](https://twitter.com/YazzieSays/status/791726802037125120) Next time you’re invited to an October picnic, consider bringing your own pumpkin barbecue: > [](https://twitter.com/YazzieSays/status/791728525434773504) Guessing that someone on NASA’s SMAP (that’s Soil Moisture Active and Passive for us laymen) team made this SMAP-inspired pumpkin: > [](https://twitter.com/YazzieSays/status/791725749216477184) NASA’s Juno [mission to Jupiter](http://time.com/4376888/europa-jupiter-space-nasa/?iid=sr-link1) was recreated in gourd form, too: > [](https://twitter.com/YazzieSays/status/791730832754941952) Someone even made a black hole, which, thankfully was not a fully functional model. > [](https://twitter.com/YazzieSays/status/791729115254493184) There was a space telescope: > [](https://twitter.com/YazzieSays/status/791734013735997440) Yazzie shared is own entry, too, a Mars helicopter with rotating blades: > [](https://twitter.com/YazzieSays/status/791735222689595392) \[H/T [Pasadena Star News](http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/science/20161027/jpl-had-a-nasapumpkin-contest-and-proved-real-pumpkin-carving-actually-is-rocket-science)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4547909/nasa-wins-halloween-with-superior-pumpkin-carving-skills/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4547909/nasa-wins-halloween-with-superior-pumpkin-carving-skills/"},"headline":"NASA Wins Halloween With Superior Pumpkin Carving Skills","datePublished":"2016-10-28T16:24:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:38:06.471Z","description":"Pumpkin carving meets rocket science","url":"https://time.com/4547909/nasa-wins-halloween-with-superior-pumpkin-carving-skills/","keywords":["Newsfeed","NASA","Holidays","halloween"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte9aaf882939eb195/6988abfc196cf477df03dbe0/nasa-pumkin-carving.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte9aaf882939eb195/6988abfc196cf477df03dbe0/nasa-pumkin-carving.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pumpkin carved as a galaxy of shooting stars and planets","caption":"Pumpkin carved as a galaxy of shooting stars and planets","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4547909/nasa-wins-halloween-with-superior-pumpkin-carving-skills/","name":"NASA Wins Halloween With Superior Pumpkin Carving Skills"}}]}] ```