Science & Tech

NASA Carves the Best Halloween Pumpkins Imaginable (Of Course They Do)

by Kendall Ashley
Oct 31 2016 • 9:00 AM

NASA is known for their amazing innovation and their forward-thinking projects to take the human race further into space exploration. When I think of the people at NASA, I tend to think of a bunch of intense scientists working to solve the mysteries of the universe. I think numbers, rockets, and problem-solving. Pumpkin carving (or any other seasonal crafts, for that matter) never even cross my mind when wondering about these folks. However, it turns out that NASA can get pretty damn festive around this time of year, and they really bring their A game when it comes to carving Jack-o’-Lanterns.

As Gizmodo reports, NASA holds a pumpkin carving “contest” (which isn’t really a contest because there isn’t a declared winner) every year. While we mere mortals may slave, sweat, and weep openly as we try desperately to recreate some of our favorite pumpkin carving ideas we grabbed from the interwebz, the folks at NASA are creating Halloween displays of science, engineering, and crafting. And they’re making it look effortless, too.This year, there was a pretty wide range of pumpkin carving efforts at NASA. While some of the pumpkins were cleverly carved to shout out to one of the biggest phenomenons in pop culture this year:

…and others were bleak political commentaries:

…many of the pumpkins were more than just feats of crafting expertise. They were also feats of seasonal, pumpkin-engineering, like this pumpkin carnival swing:

I don’t know about you, but this really makes me feel extra lazy for my own feeble pumpkin-carving efforts. Even still, these are some pretty amazing pumpkins, and it makes NASA seem like an even cooler place to work. If you want to check out some of the other awesome pumpkin carvings that NASA has to offer, you can check out the Twitter of NASA Mechanical Engineer, Aaron Yazzie, or take a peek at the Twitter roundup of the hashtag #NASAPumpkin.

Which pumpkin is your favorite? Did you do any cool pumpkin carving this season? Tell us about it in the comments!

Feature Image: William Warby/Flickr