Out of this World Space Builds contest

This rover moves around distant planets in order to transport fuel for rocket launches. The astronauts have a large array in the front for communicating with the main base. There is also a tracking station for communicating with satellites. The rover also uses rubber bands connected to the pins to act as shock absorbers for when it has to go over rough terrain.

Important in every space mission is the ground radio telescope used to communicate with the intrepid explorers. Without constant contact with home, the space mission would truly be alone. Also used to explore the galaxy's radio signature, the ground station can detect potential habitable exoplanets for the explorers. Radio telescopes can be combined into an array to cover a larger area.

The lunar rocket base is a launch pad to the rest of the solar system. Primarily used for transporting supplies to the bases on Mars, this outpost has a small rocket along with housing facilities for the various technicians. The mobile fuel truck gets rocket fuel from the mining outposts and brings it here for the launches.

For those trips that are too short to take a whole spaceship, but are too far to run, jump and hop, take the space pod! This craft will quickly get you from moonbase to moonbase so you won't miss that important geological meeting. Don't try to go from the moon to Mars, though. You might just get stuck in a LaGrange point.

An important part of designing and building any spaceship is making sure the engines work. Rockets are complex pieces of machinery that depend on detailed timing. So, they are tested on a mount. If it explodes, then you aren't damaging the rest of the spaceship. Rockets will test like this several times in a design cycle, and even after design to make sure it was built correctly. Most of the time, they don't explode, even if they aren't working quite right. However, it is the exploding tests that become popular videos to watch!