Pumpkin carving isn’t rocket science – unless NASA engineers are doing it

The idea of NASA engineers putting all that brain power to work on something as mundane as carving pumpkins is kinda mind-blowing.

We are so jealous that we never thought of attaching a parachute to a pumpkin and making it “float” with a air blower.

On Monday, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology competed in their annual pumpkin-carving contest. This was the event’s seventh year, according to the lab’s website.

They do it over their lunch hours. The rules say they can’t work on their creations — not even plan them — during work hours.

“Perhaps the most insane part – almost all of these creations move. Sweet mother of god.,” gushed CNET.

What engineering sorcery did it take to make that musician-made-of-pumpkin “strum” a guitar?

A spinning mermaid?

Fighting robot pumpkins?

“Once a year at Halloween, JPLers take a break from building robots that explore the solar system to craft dramatic creations that have as much in common with standard jack-o’-lanterns as paper airplanes do with NASA spacecraft,” says the lab’s website.

The contest “gives engineers a chance to flex their creative muscles and bond as a team,” NASA mechanical engineer Mike Meacham said on the website.

Contests of Halloweens past turned up a pumpkin carved into a UFO that “beamed up” tiny cows and one with a “robotic arm that could flip a light switch on and off,” according to the website.

Engineer Iona Brockie, who worked on the Mars 2020 rover and won last year’s contest, told the NASA website that her colleagues get “so excited about this competition that has no prize other than bragging rights.”

To see more photos and videos of this year’s entries, check out the lab’s Flickr account.

Just don’t bother hollering at them.

Because in space, no one can hear you scream.