Elleigh Browning, 10, Avery Beierle, 7, and Everleigh Browning, 7, operate remote control gyroscopic spheres, “spheros,” on a large map of Mars at the Mars New Year Festival on Saturday, June 10. Seb Foltz/Special to the Eagle

MARS — Mars New Year Festival announced 2023’s Mars STEAM Challenge winners for science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics Saturday, June 10.

“I think that, overall, the projects were all fantastic,” organizer Jessica Beasley said.

The Mars STEAM Challenge tasked nearly 70 students from across the country to help future colonists “survive” or “thrive” on the red planet, according to Beasley.

“So we expanded it this time to include the arts as well,” she said.

Students in grades three through 12 submitted 48 projects to the “survive” and “thrive” categories. “Survive” included science, technology, engineering and math, and “thrive” focused on the arts for this virtual competition.

The projects were judged by a panel of six NASA professionals, and there were 24 winners, Beasley said.