The annual Planetary Lander ‘Egg-Drop’ Competition (PLEDC) challenges K-12 students across Florida to compete for prizes against the brightest youths in the state. Each team is tasked with designing and building their own lander in which a raw-egg will serve as the payload and must survive a drop of almost 20-feet, just as a real NASA lander would on the Moon, Mars or an Asteroid. Teams must build their planetary landers so that they can fit into a 10 inch x 10 inch x 12 inch container and the landers may be constructed of all forms of aluminum, plastic, wood or soft foam. Complete Guidelines, Rules, Regulations, Prizes and Judging Criteria are available on this website.
The original competition titled the "Lunar Lander Eggs PRIZE" was initiated by the Earthrise Space Foundation (ESF) and was held on May 30th, 2009 at the International Space Development Conference in Orlando, FL. It was established to engage middle and high school students in STEM activities and acted as a way to introduce the community to ESF's team competing in the Google Lunar X PRIZE, Team Omega Envoy. High school teams built "lunar landers" that were capable of safely landing an egg on the ground from a high drop.
Teachers were inspired by the competition and requested that it be continued. Space Florida took the lead and ran the egg-drop competition from 2010-2015 to help generate interest and promote students' understanding of aerospace technology, engineering, and mathematics, as well as increase their awareness of organizations that help promote the space industry.
The Florida Afterschool Network took over management for the 2016 event to continue this mission and help the event grow across the state, the country, and eventually the world!
