By day, the guys at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California build robots for space.

But when Halloween comes around, these brainiacs compete in an ‘unofficial’ pumpkin carving contest, which NASA mechanical engineer Mike Meacham said gives them a chance to let out some creativity and bond. “I don’t think, even at the time, they appreciated just how seriously our engineers were going to take it,” he said about the first contest – and the evidence is clear. From a pumpkin playing guitar to Charlie Brown on mars, these designs were out of this world.

The only limits were their imaginations, with three simple rules: “no planning, carving or competing during work hours. They do it all in their own time,” said Meacham, who’s co-running the competition this year. “They go home, use their own resources, plan it out, and all we give them is a pumpkin.”

While there is no prize (other than bragging rights) these competitors brought their carving game to another universe. To see these elaborate pumpkins scroll down below! Official voting for the competition may be over but you can still vote for your favorite pumpkin with us!

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