Stories about success often focus on the end result — the "big win" that makes all those pesky failures along the way have meaning. But for makers, the failures are just as important — sometimes even more so — than the end result, because of what was learned along the way.

In our cover story, we follow a group of friends who set out to send an autonomous boat across the Atlantic a decade ago. Their boat never made it, but that failure set them on a course to launch their own startup for self-navigating vessels. And they give you tips on building your own!

From there, get busy building by using the principles of tension and symmetry to make an “impossible” tensegrity planter. Then, update a classic Magic 8-Ball with a Raspberry Pi and divine your fortune with a set of custom GIF reactions.

Plus, 32 projects you can build:

• Make VR haptic gloves on a budget

• Build a CO2 logger to help fight Covid-19

• Learn to use generative design in Fusion 360

• Send and receive sound using a beam of light

• Build articulated wings for over-the-top cosplay or Halloween

• And much more!