Halloween at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California is an annual opportunity for scientists to test their pumpkin carving skills.
NASA engineers and astronomers who otherwise spend their days tracking asteroids and designing rockets have proven themselves to be devilishly good at the Halloween tradition.
Every year NASA hosts a competition for the best carved pumpkin and this year’s submissions have produced some of the best results yet.
Last year, the Halloween pumpkin carving competition was won by the Europa Pirate Ship – a pumpkin intricately carved into a ship sailing the waters of Jupiter’s moon Europa.
And this year’s Halloween creations are even wilder and more imaginative than ever.
NASA JPL engineer Aaron Yazzie tweeted from the Halloween party: “The annual NASA JPL Mechanical Engineering Sections Pumpkin Carving Contest was just as insane as ever.”
Among the more technical creations was the “Polishing the Cannonball Pumpkin” scene, which involved a a robotic hand polishing a pumpkin spray painted black.
Elsewhere, some NASA engineers seemingly got rid of the pumpkin entirely and showcased their ability to recreate a ghoulish looking 3D model of the vegetable on a computer – but it was in reality an optical illusion built into the scene.
The space experts also took a lot of inspiration from Hollywood and TV for their creations.
One pumpkin was carved into a life-like resemblance of Steven Spielberg’s beloved alien ET – bicycle basket and blanket from his iconic flying scene included.
Another pumpkin was inspired by Sesame Street and was magically transformed into the Cookie Monster, with rotating eyes and a pile of delicious cookies spilling out of its mouth.
Some of NASA’s engineers also paid tribute to the Day of the Dead holiday, Dia de los Muertos, by recreating a scene from the Pixar film Coco.
The clever scene features the film’s hero Miguel carved into a pumpkin and strumming a guitar painted with traditional Mexican livery.
Another Dia de los Muertos carved pumpkin was dedicated to the memory of NASA’s Cassini Space Probe which died a spectacular death in Saturn’s atmosphere in July last year.
Other NASA engineers took a more educational approach to the challenge this year by transforming their pumpkin display into a mathematical quiz.
The “Guess the Mass of the Pumpkin using only physics and math” submission featured two pumpkins swinging from a wooden framework.
Mr Yazzie said it was the “scariest pumpkin of them all”.
The late singer David Bowie was also honoured in a very tongue-in-cheek display titled “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Starshade and the Tensegrity Spiders”.
Battlebots, the popular robot fighting series, also got a Halloween themed upgrade with the Battle Bot Pumpkins display.
The contest submission featured two robotic pumpkin gladiators duelling in a “Battle Pumpkins” arena.
NASA is yet to announce the results of this year’s Halloween contest, but the JPL shared some tips on making your very own carved pumpkin.
The space agency said: “Want to make an out-of-this-world Halloween pumpkin? Take a cue from the engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“It’s their job to design and build robots that can travel millions of miles to study other planets – and sometimes even land and drive around on the surface.
“So on Halloween, they can’t help but bring some of that same creative thinking to designing stellar pumpkins inspired by space exploration.”