2026 Cost Challenge Presentation: Team Tecolote

ICEAA hosted our 4th Cost Challenge at our 2026 Professional Development & Training Workshop in Norfolk, Virginia, a historic waterfront city shaped by naval logistics, shipbuilding, and America’s earliest colonial roots, not far from the first permanent English settlement in North America: Jamestown. Four hundred and nineteen years later, the world’s imagination is captured by settling a new frontier: Mars. What would it take to plan, deliver, operate, and grow a permanent settlement in an extreme environment with long supply lines, limited rescue options, and major uncertainty?

Our teams of junior cost estimators (all of whom had 3 or fewer years of experience) presented their estimates for the cost of establishing and sustaining New Jamestown, the first human settlement on Mars starting in 2050, including transportation, infrastructure, life support, operations, R&D/technology, and future expansion capability. We encouraged the teams to think of the ways New Jamestown would mirror original Jamestown, particularly when it comes to building a new settlement from scratch while isolated in a hostile environment, and how they would evolve a starter outpost to a robust base with around 400 inhabitants over ten years.

Join us to see how our 2026 Cost Challenge Teams assessed, analyzed, and approached the exciting adventure of New Jamestown!  The team from Tecolote Research will give their presentation for the membership at noon (eastern) on Thursday, July 23!