Brainteaser: NASA spacecraft logic

Difficulty: Tricky

Can you solve this grid-based logic puzzle about NASA (inspired by a recent news article)?

You are doing a science project about four of NASA’s spacecraft: Clipper, DAVINCI, Dragonfly and MAVEN. Each spacecraft will visit another planet in the solar system: Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. They also have different launch dates: 2013, 2024, 2028 and 2030.

Your presentation is just after lunch, but your notes got jumbled! Can you use the following clues to match each spacecraft to their planet and launch date?

MAVEN stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN and it’s already orbiting its target planet.
In 2028, NASA will launch a spacecraft to Saturn and its name starts with D.
The spacecraft bound for Jupiter will launch in 2024.
Venus will welcome a spacecraft with a name in ALL CAPS.

Need a hint?

If you’re new to grid-based logic puzzles, check out our detailed guide here.

Here are some key things to remember:

Every item (e.g. each spacecraft) is matched to one and only one other item in another category (e.g. planet). For example, MAVEN goes to Mars and only Mars. No other spacecraft goes to Mars.
Use the grids to record true (O) or false (X) for each possible paring. For example, the box at the intersection of MAVEN and Mars is true, so mark a O in this box.
Whenever you mark an O, you can mark false (X) in all the adjacent boxes in the row and in the column. Check out our guide to understand why.

Remember, you can use the clues in any order, so start with the easiest ones!

Brainteaser answer

Here are the final answers:

Clipper will visit Jupiter and launches in 2024 (read more about Europa Clipper here)
DAVINCI will visit Venus and launches in 2030 (read more about DAVINCI here)
Dragonfly will visit Saturn and launches in 2028 (read more about Dragonfly here)
MAVEN is visiting Mars and launched in 2013 (read more about MAVEN here)

Here is the final grid:

Let’s go clue-by-clue to show how we get the answers.

The first clue gives us two pieces of information.

First, we learn that MAVEN has Mars in its name, which tells us MAVEN goes to Mars! This means we can mark true (O) in the box at the intersection of MAVEN and Mars (dark red box). Because each spacecraft can only visit one planet, we can mark false (X) for the other spacecraft in the Mars column and false for the other planets in the MAVEN row (light red boxes).

Second, we learn that MAVEN is already orbiting Mars, so it must have launched already. We can safely eliminate 2028 and 2030 (blue boxes).

We can do clues out of order and the next easiest clue is clue 3. This clue tells us that Jupiter and 2024 go together. This means we can mark true at the intersection of those two items (red box) and false for other boxes in the same row and column (light red boxes).

Combined with information from the first clue, all the launch dates for Mars have an X except for 2013, so by process of elimination the Mars spacecraft must have been launched in 2013 (dark blue box). This allows us to eliminate other options in the 2013 row (light blue boxes).

Because MAVEN and Mars and 2013 all go together, we can mark True for the MAVEN and 2013 box on the top right grid (purple boxes). This is called a transposition.

The next easiest clue is clue 4, which tells us Venus is visited by a spacecraft with a name in all caps. Since we’ve already figured out MAVEN goes to Mars, Venus must be visited by DAVINCI! Adding a true box allows us to eliminate other boxes in the same row and column (red boxes).

Next, because we’ve figured out that Venus goes with DAVINCI, we can use a transposition to say that DAVINCI doesn’t launch in 2013 and 2024 (blue boxes).

Grid showing that Venus and DAVINCI go together

Now we’re left with just one more clue. Clue 2 gives us two pieces of information.

First, it tells us that Saturn’s spacecraft launches in 2028. We can mark that box as true and all blank adjacent boxes in the same row and column as false (red boxes). After doing this, we eliminate all but the 2030 box for Venus, meaning we have figured out that DAVINCI launches to Venus in 2030 (blue boxes)! We can use transposition to fill in the boxes in the top right grid (purple boxes).

Clue 2 also tells us that the Saturn spacecraft has a name that starts with D. We have already matched DAVINCI to Venus, so that leaves Dragonfly for Saturn! Mark this box as true and adjacent boxes in the same row and column as false (red boxes).

Next, by process of elimination, we can match Clipper to Jupiter (blue box), which finishes the middle grid. We can also fill out the top right grid using transpositions (purple boxes). And voila! We’ve completed the grid and recovered all the information about the four spacecraft!

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