Video: NASA Hosts Pumpkin-Carving Contest
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These decorative gourds are out of this world.
Want to know the best way to carve a pumpkin? Ask a NASA engineer. The space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory set its sight closer to Earth by hosting a pumpkin-carving contest.
Contestants picked out their pumpkin the day before, allowing them a chance to measure and study their decorative gourd. The next day, the carvers had an hour to put together the most ingenious display they could produce.
And lest you think parts were being pilfered from rockets and robots, all mechanisms and tools used in the creation of the pumpkin masterpieces were bought and brought by the NASA employees themselves.
"These are mechanical engineers; they're hardware people," Sergio Valdez, a NASA engineer said. "They love building stuff."
To see the amazingly engineered pumpkins, check out the video below from Wired: