NASA scientists battle for best Halloween pumpkin at annual carving contest

From scary faces to creepy black cats, most pumpkins you come across this Halloween will have pretty predictable designs.

But NASA scientists have been a whole lot more creative with their entries to the space agency’s annual pumpkin-carving contest.

With just an hour to carve their pumpkin, scientists were able to come up with some impressive designs, ranging from a flying saucer pumpkin to an adorable depiction of Disney’s Nemo.

Billy Allen, a NASA engineer who usually spends his time working on the Mars 2020 rover, said: “It's totally different from our normal engineering work, which makes it a nice change of pace. You don't get to do much arts and crafts in the rover world.


Mr Allen’s team won the top prize for their ‘Lunar Jack-o’-Lander – a tribute to Apollo 11’s 50th anniversary.

Their winning pumpkin featured an intricate pulley system as well as a fog machine to replicate the famous moon landing.

The other winner, called ‘Lucy’s Chocolate Factory', was a life-size recreation of the ‘Job Switching’ episode from the TV programme ‘I Love Lucy’.


While those two were awarded prizes, that’s not to say the other pumpkins weren’t also pretty impressive.

Other entires included a pumpkin version of Disney’s Nemo, a dragon emerging from a pumpkin egg, and a tableau from the movie ‘Us, with a pumpkin stabbing its twin!

Mike Meacham, a senior mechanical engineer at NASA, said: “I think people are going bigger this year. I've seen a lot of structures, including our own, which is enormous. I had to sneak it in last night.”

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