Rules, terms, and conditions

NASA welcomes applications from individuals, teams, and organizations or entities that have a recognized legal existence and structure under applicable U.S. law and that are in good standing in the jurisdiction under which they are organized with the following restrictions:

1. Individuals must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents of the United States and be 18 years of age or older.
2. Organizations must be an entity incorporated in and maintaining a primary place of business in the United States.
3. Teams must be comprised of otherwise eligible individuals or organizations and led by a U.S Citizen or permanent resident of the United States who is 18 years of age or older.

U.S. government employees may participate so long as they are not acting within the scope of their position, rely on no facilities, access, personnel, knowledge, or other resources that are available to them as a result of their employment except for those resources made available to all other participants on an equal basis.

U.S. government employees participating as individuals, or who submit applications on behalf of an otherwise eligible organization, will be responsible for ensuring that their participation in the Challenge is permitted by the rules and regulations relevant to their position and that they have obtained any authorization that may be required by virtue of their government position. Failure to do so may result in the disqualification of them individually or of the entity which they represent or in which they are involved.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, a team may include foreign nationals and the team shall still be eligible to receive a prize AS LONG AS the foreign national signs and delivers a Foreign Participant Acknowledgement Form wherein they disclose his/her citizenship and acknowledge that they are not eligible to receive a prize from NASA, AND the foreign national is:

• An employee of an otherwise eligible U.S. Entity participating in the Challenge, 
• An owner of such Entity, so long as the foreign citizens own less than 50% of the interests in the Entity,
• A contractor under written contract to such Entity, or
• A full-time student who, during the time of the Challenge, (1) is enrolled in an OTHERWISE ELIGIBLE accredited institution of higher learning, (2) has a valid student visa and (3) is otherwise in compliance with all local, state, and U.S. Government laws and regulations regarding the sale and export of technology.

Registered competitors shall be responsible for the actions of and compliance with the rules by their employees, subcontractors, officers, owners, and other affiliated persons.

Each eligible lead applicant may submit one application. A lead applicant may serve as a partner on an application led by another eligible lead applicant provided that each application proposes a separate and distinct solution.

Regional or location-specific branches of larger organizations, as well as departments, schools, and nonprofits within or based in a college/university, can each register and submit separately as the lead applicant on one application provided that each of the proposed solutions are separate and distinct.

Federal entities or Federal employees acting within the scope of their employment are not eligible to receive an award.

Employees and on-site contractors of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory are not eligible to receive an award.

Employees of NASA, Luminary Labs, Motiv Space Systems, Rocket Lab Corporation, and any of their subsidiaries and affiliates, and immediate family members (spouse, parent, child, sibling and their respective spouses, regardless of where they live) or persons living in the same households of such employees, are not eligible.

If you are a Government contractor or are employed by one, your participation in this Challenge may also be restricted. If you or your employer is receiving Government funding for similar projects in which you are developing a flight-ready payload, you or your employer are not eligible for award under this Challenge. Additionally, the U.S. Government may have Intellectual Property Rights in your solution if your solution was made under a Government Contract, Grant or Cooperative Agreement. Under such conditions, you may not be eligible for award. Please contact us if you need help determining your eligibility.

If a team of individuals and/or entities is selected as a Winner, any Award will be made to the person who registered the team and submitted the application. That person is responsible for ensuring the award funds are appropriately distributed to each member of the team.

If an organization is selected as a Winner, any Award will be made to the person who registered the organization and submitted the entry. You warrant that the appropriate officers, executives, managers, or other persons who have the authority to approve participation in this challenge have approved Your Entry and You understand that these terms will be binding on both You and your Entity. Furthermore, You understand that if You enter without obtaining the appropriate approval, NASA may, in its sole discretion, disqualify your Entry. Finally, if an entity is selected to receive an award, an officer or person entitled to bind the entity will be required to validate that You are entitled to receive the award on the behalf of the entity and the officer or person entitled to bind the entity must provide the appropriate information for payment of the award.

Each application should reflect the anticipated ownership, use, and licensing of any intellectual property. You represent and warrant that your Entry is an original work created solely by You, that You own all Intellectual Property in and to the Entry, and that no other party has any right, title, claim or interest in the Entry, except as expressly identified by You to us in writing in Your application. You retain all rights, title and interest in any inventions, software or work of authorship You invent or create. The ownership and use of intellectual property arising from this challenge remains with You. NASA may choose to negotiate for a license to use the solutions developed as a result of this challenge.

You agree to obtain any and all insurance policies and coverage required by Your local, state, or federal governments to conduct any and all activities related to or required by Your participation in the Challenge. Additionally, Challenge Sponsor requires that each Individual, Entity or Team have liability insurance in the amount of $250,000 that covers all participating team members and will require proof of such insurance as a requirement to participate in the challenge or otherwise demonstrate financial responsibility for that amount. This liability insurance shall cover (A) a third party for death, bodily injury, or property damage, or loss resulting from an activity carried out in connection with participation in a challenge, with the Federal Government named as an additional insured under the registered applicant’s insurance policy and registered applicants agreeing to indemnify the Federal Government against third party claims for damages arising from or related to challenge activities; and (B) the Federal Government for damage or loss to Government property resulting from such an activity. Proof of insurance shall be provided to the Challenge Sponsor upon being identified as a potential Winner. You agree that failure to meet this insurance requirement will result in Your removal from participation in the Challenge.

1. Your Entry must be in English.
2. You must complete registration to participate in the Challenge. Individuals must be 18 years of age or older at the time of entry to participate either individually or by representing an applicant organization. You cannot reside in nor be governed by countries that are prohibited by law, regulation (including United States or other applicable export laws and regulations), treaty, or administrative act from entering into trade relations (including export of technology) with the United States of America or its citizens.
3. Your Entry should meet the application requirements stipulated on this website. You are required to register in advance of any deadlines for the submission of an Entry, and You must comply with all other deadlines posted on this website. Your Entry may not, in the sole and unfettered discretion of NASA and/or Luminary Labs, contain obscene, provocative, defamatory, or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate content.
4. NASA reserves the right to cancel, modify, or suspend the Challenge in whole or in part without liability to You. NASA and/or Luminary Labs also reserves the right to disqualify You from participating.
5. By participating in the NASA TechLeap Prize, You represent, warrant, and agree that:
   1. You are the sole author, creator, and owner of the Entry;
   2. the Entry is not the subject of any actual or threatened litigation or claim;
   3. the Entry does not and will not violate or infringe upon the intellectual property rights, privacy rights, publicity rights, or other legal rights of any third party;
   4. the Entry does not and will not contain any harmful computer code (sometimes referred to as “malware,” “viruses” or “worms”); and
   5. the Entry, and Your use of the Entry, does not and will not violate any applicable laws or regulations, including, without limitation, applicable export control laws and regulations of the United States and other jurisdictions. If the Entry includes any third party works (such as third party content or open source code), You must provide the Challenge Sponsor with all appropriate licenses and releases for such third party works. In the event You cannot provide all such required licenses and releases, the Challenge Sponsor reserves the right, in the Challenge Sponsor’s sole discretion, to disqualify the applicable Entry.
6. You may participate by registering, but You may not register more than one true and uniform identity; multiple registrations for a participant using multiple identities are not allowed. NASA and/or Luminary Labs reserve the right to disqualify any Entry made by a participant violating this limitation, regardless of whether all of the respective parties had knowledge of such violation. You may only submit one Entry.
7. The submission requirements for your Entry are clearly described on this website. Your Entry will be assessed initially by five Judges, who will be assigned to score your Entry either randomly or after considering any potential conflicts of interest, using the scoring rubric and any other judging criteria that are also described on this website. In cases where a Judge indicates any potential conflict of interest, the Entry will be assigned to another Judge. Those Judges, each of whom is named on this website, will be responsible for scoring your Entry.
8. Once a rank order of Submissions has been calculated, the top-scoring Submissions will be reviewed by the Selection Committee Judges with consideration given to the variety of solutions. The Selection Committee Judges are permitted to communicate with Competitors solely for the purposes of carrying out due diligence for evaluating your Entry and assigning a score during the review process, but those Judges are not required to contact any individual. Up to three Competitors may be named as Winners. By participating in the NASA TechLeap Prize, You acknowledge and agree to be bound by the final decision of the Challenge Sponsor.
9. While Luminary Labs, LLC (“Luminary Labs”) is providing an online platform for your participation and will be disbursing Award funds to each of the Winners, Luminary Labs is not responsible for providing Award funds. Funding any Award(s) is the sole responsibility of NASA and its designees, and under these Rules, each participant has agreed to look solely to NASA, as the Challenge Sponsor, for the payment of any Award.
10. By submitting your Entry, you agree to release, discharge, and hold harmless NASA and Luminary Labs and their partners, affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising agencies, agents and their employees, officers, directors, and representatives from any Loss arising out of your participation in Challenge and the acceptance and use, misuse, or possession of any Award(s). Neither NASA nor Luminary Labs assume responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, or delay in operation or transmission; communications line failure; theft or destruction of or unauthorized access to Challenge submissions or entry forms; or alteration of submissions or entry forms. Neither NASA nor Luminary Labs are responsible for any problems with or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of any entry to be received on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or any website, human errors of any kind, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to competitors’ or any other persons’ computers related to or resulting from participation, uploading or downloading of any materials related to this Challenge. In the event of a dispute about the identity of any Competitor, an online registration will be declared as if made by the authorized account holder of the e-mail address submitted at time of entry.
11. THIS CHALLENGE IS VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. Competitors agree that this Challenge shall be subject to and governed by the Federal laws of the United States of America and the forum of any dispute shall be in the Federal courts of the United States of America.
12. If for any reason the Challenge is not capable of running as planned, due to infection by computer virus, bugs, worms, Trojan horses, denial of service, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or any other causes beyond the control of Luminary Labs that corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this Challenge, Luminary Labs reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual(s) who tamper with the process, and/or to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend the Challenge. If NASA and/or Luminary Labs terminates the Challenge, it will not retain any rights in the submitted Entries.
13. The Challenge Sponsor reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any Competitor who is found to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the NASA TechLeap Prize, to be acting in violation of these Rules, or to be acting in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner, or with the intent to disrupt or undermine the legitimate operation of the NASA TechLeap Prize, or to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any other person.
14. Entry into the NASA TechLeap Prize does not constitute entry into any other NASA challenge, Luminary Labs challenge, or promotion that may be offered by the Challenge Sponsor and/or its affiliates.
15. NASA and/or Luminary Labs reserves the right to disqualify any participant who violates these RULES and any standards of behavior expressed or implied in them.
16. The names of the Winners will be posted on this website for such period of time as the Challenge Sponsor deems reasonable.

You may contact [email protected] with any questions or comments about these RULES.