Finalist in NASA Space to Soil Challenge

The Caltech CAOS team recently participated in the NASA Space to Soil Challenge, a highly competitive competition focused on advancing adaptive sensing and onboard processing for SmallSat missions. Their proposal, CoverGuard, was selected as one of the top 10 finalists nationwide. As finalists, the team has been awarded a $5,000 prize to support travel and logistics to attend the live, in-person Pitch Event at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. on June 17th. If CAOS is selected as one of the top three winners at the event, the project will receive a $100,000 grand prize and an invitation to a 10–12 week NASA incubator program leading to a Demo Day presentation at the IGARSS 2026 conference. Go CAOS!