Eligibility

• HERC is open to U.S. and International teams.
• All team members shall be currently enrolled students from a middle school, high school, an accredited institution of higher learning, or an institution such as a science center, museum, planetarium, or youth-serving organization. Multi-institutional teams are permitted for same level of education, i.e., two or more high schools on one team. Students from middle schools, high schools, and accredited institutions of higher learning shall not be combined to make a team.

• Middle School teams will be composted of student ages 11 through 14. Team members must be of the appropriate age at the submission of the proposal.
• High School teams will be composed of students ages 14 through 19. Team members must be of the appropriate age at the submission of the proposal
• Accredited institutions of higher learning (College/University) teams shall be composed of undergraduate students. Graduate students may serve as mentors for the team but shall not participate as team members.
• Accredited institutions of higher learning (College/University) undergraduate teams will be composed of students ages 18 and older. Students who are younger than 18, may require age and enrollment verification.
• Youth-serving organization teams can be a mixture of middle school and high school students and must abide by age requirements. Youth-serving organization teams shall compete at the highest level based on the above age ranges. No combination of middle/high school and college/university students is allowed.

Proposals

All potential teams are required to submit a proposal to compete. Proposals shall be submitted to the HERC Management Team (HERC@mail.nasa.gov). The deadline for submitting proposals is Monday, September 15, 2025, at 8AM CT. Top scoring proposals will be selected to compete. If your team is selected, your Student Team Lead will be allowed to register for the competition through NASA STEM Gateway (stemgateway.nasa.gov). Once the team application is completed, invitations will be sent through NASA STEM Gateway to each team member to register as members of the team.