Fans de Interstellar

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1FEkQHHdhLuT-JW6mYnP0Fujz0sOLwkGN

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gQ2VZ06ypiKl_Qn0Ncas-qB-0w1BqtJc

The fundamental idea behind the resolution to the problem is given by the condition of inspiration and the responsibility that we have as individuals to inspire others with hard work, imagination and inspiration, showing others how science is built and how to accomplish knowledge.

We must find connections between all the research fields in NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD), listed below:

• Physical & biological sciences
• Astrophysics
• Heliophysics
• Planetary science
• Earth science

What makes our solution something relevant it’s the way we can do our part in society, inspiring others to accomplish wonders by developing scientific skills that, in near future, will be demanded by space exploration and humanity’s growth, approached through an interactive and attractive way.

What we offer

• Fun way of learning
• Inspire new space scientists and engineers
• Creative and attractive way to define the boundaries of each research area of NASA
• At the same time, connect them all in such a fundamental wa

What challenge are we solving?

Discovering Scientific Connections.

We must find connections between all the research fields in NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD), listed below [6]: 

• Physical & biological sciences
• Astrophysics
• Heliophysics
• Planetary science
• Earth science

The way in which we are able to build knowledge should be through the virtues and connection between the various scientific disciplines, not as a division of them, but as the opportunity to explore the vision of each one to build our path to growth with our own imagination, shaping the future. That’s the way we build science.

Why is this problematic important?

Society needs space, space needs science.

NASA and space agencies around the globe are working to improve the way we achieve knowledge through the scientific method, inspiring future scientists and engineers to work as one . Childhood needs inspiration, vocation and big dreams, that's the way we are able to approach the stars. The fundamental idea behind the resolution to the problem is given by the condition of inspiration and the responsibility that we have as individuals to inspire others with hard work, imagination and inspiration, showing others how science is built and how to accomplish knowledge. 

What are we developing?

We are phapeing.

We want to share to the people our thoughts and motivation as inspirational as possible, that is why we are developing a video game where people can learn about the different scientific disciplines that NASA works with, watch and play with a spaceship in The Phapeing Solar System (Physics & biological science, heliophysics, planetary science, earth science and ingenious Solar System) , in a dynamic and visual way while they are phapeing and discovering scientific connections.

How is our solution solving the challenge that we are working with?

The solution we are developing is visual, dynamic, creative, inspirational and, above all, attractive and interactive. Our main goal, among others, is to have an interactive approach to learn new connections between different topics of research in NASA, creating an environment of mystery and an authentic feeling of discovery for the user.

Why is our solution so relevant?

What makes our solution something relevant it’s the way we can do our part in society, inspiring others to accomplish wonders by developing scientific skills that, in near future, will be demanded by space exploration and humanity’s growth, approached through an interactive and attractive way.

What does the Phapeing Solar System do? what does it allow to achieve?

We are able to define a new way of learning, making it fun in order to inspire new space scientists and engineers. It’s a creative and attractive way to define the boundaries of each research area of NASA and, at the same time, connect them all in such a fundamental way, remarking the way nature works and approaching the main ideal given by the scientific method. 

How does the Phapeing Solar System work?

The Phapeing Solar System is being developed in python, using Thonny as the compiler allowing us to run the game. In Addition, installing a pygame library. The code works by a loop that consists in a menu with 3 options: play, controls/how to play or more simply “What am I doing here?”, and finally some credits for our team work. After that if you choose to play you will be landing in a solar system, the avatar is a rocket, and with WASD controls you can have the opportunity to travel through that system. Every planet/celestial body is a scientific field of NASA domain of study and in the function of which planet the user arrives at, they will have the experience of learning about each topic just as if they are exploring an authentic solar system. 

What are the benefits generated by the Phapeing Solar System solution?

There is a popular belief built over the argument that “science makes everything difficult”, that relates a misconception that announces how everything seems to be so far, as any topic keeps a considerable distance from each other. Science unifies the natural world as a perception of the way nature can understand itself. We are able to exemplify this by generating the benefits of a free mind in people to deconstruct the idea of how to approach a scientific way of thinking.

What do we get to achieve with the Phapeing Solar System? 

As the name of the challenge, discovering scientific connections is the main purpose that the project wants to achieve. The project facilitates people to find connections between the diverse scientific disciplines in NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD), listed below [6]: 

Which tools, programming languages, hardware or software were used to develop the Phapeing Solar System?

The Phapeing Solar System was programmed with Python and the Pygame library in the Thonny IDE. Also, some online tools, such as Canva, Geogebra and Pixilart, were used for modelling the design of the planets, spaceship, and the behaviour of the solar system in 2 dimensions, while the program Tinkercard was used to model the system in 3 dimensions.  

How will we sell our project to companies, people or institutions?

The project will have its own webpage (powered by GoDaddy), considered to play the video game, but also will have Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages where could be promoted and people around the globe can play, learn science and even make their scientific dream. 

NASA needs our project to solve the challenge, to communicate the connections between its scientific disciplines, 

Sponsoring Institutions (as shown below) could promote the project in their web pages and social media, sharing the link of our project webpage or even having our game in a special section, where people will be likely to visit, wonder about science and space, and how NASA's different scientifics disciplines correlate between them.

Our project is non profit, how could it be funded or economically sustainable?

We wanted our project to be non-profit but also to be sustainable. In that order, we consider sponsors by: 

Space agencies around the world

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, JAXA’s Business Development and Industrial Relations department, CSA’s funding program, ESA’s funding program, 

(NASA as a federal agency, finances its projects thanks to the funding from the annual federal budget passed by the government)

Mexican technological institutions 

Agencia Espacial Mexicana (AEM) 

Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT)

Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transporte (SCT)

Science communicators

Collab with international science communicators using social media, such as youtube, Instagram and Tiktok. 

What are the costs of the project?

The project contemplates time, monetary cost and workforce:

Coding

We are already developing the code with our own knowledge and initiative, but we are considering perfecting the Phapeing Solar System’s code across time, make expansions and variety of versions in order to people to play the video game in our page and adapt the game to the structure of the different space agencies web pages.

Time: 1-3 months

Money: $50.00USD

Workforce: 2 programmers (founders of the project)

Promotion

Our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the sponsoring institutions will help to promote the video game; promoting the video game will have to be constant. 

Time: 1-2 years

Money: $25.00USD

Workforce: 1 social media manager (external person) and 1 graphic designer (founder of the project)

Distribution

We will be sharing an adapted version of the video game’s code to the different sponsoring institutions (space agencies and others) but, also, we will have our own webpage powered by GoDaddy, where people can play for free and space agencies can share the link address.

Time: 1-2 months

Money: $10.00USD

Workforce: 3 Social media manager

Who will our clients be? and our users?

Clients

Our clients would be space agencies, universities, high schools and any other educational institute involved in science and technology. The project is perfect to increase interest in science, computer programming and astronomy. Users will be able to enjoy playing the game at the same time they use their creativity.

Users

Kids, teenagers and undergraduate students. Our project aims to reach every user that has the sufficient curiosity to explore a whole new solar system and ecosystems inside each habitable planet. Those users as well could be potential economic clients and supporters. That point of view has livelihood in the fact that everyone enjoys to explore and to learn new things for general knowledge, no matter if the user is a child, a teenager, a student, a profesionist or simply a hippie philosopher.  

How will our business model be?

As previously mentioned in this text and in previous advances of the project, Phapeing Solar System is intended to make the population's knowledge grow, in terms of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Creating awareness and knowledge of the population about these topics is essential.

One main focus is to achieve this by making it fun, attractive, dynamic and interactive through a popular vintage style videogame as explained before. Taking advantage of the clear nowadays trend to the vintage style.

Due to the goal we have and what we are aiming at, we are expecting to successfully reach the different strategic alliances we are considering, such as sponsors and influencers related to science. We consider influencers could have many roles as strategic alliances, by making us reach more people when sharing and recommending our videogame’s website. Having more people enjoying Phapeing Solar System brings more possible donors and sponsors to get interested in supporting the idea.

Phapeing Solar System is intended to make data visualization available, dynamic and interactive. As PSS (Phapeing Solar System) proposes, each division from SMD of NASA will be represented by an astro orbiting Physics star. In this way, each astro will contain data obtained from its according division. This will be retrieved from open-source information.

For our first planet in PSS, astrophysics, we have different big data centers where we can obtain a large amount of data. For Planetary Science we can use PDS (Planetary Data System). As a ring for Planetary Science we have Heliophysics as a moon. Heliophysics shown data can be retrieved from HDP (Heliophysics Data Portal). Orbiting Planetary Science we have Earth Science as a moon. Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) is one of the major sources of the information needed for this case. Finally, as a region on Earth Science, Biology is highly represented by data obtained from NASA’s open data catalog, which is an Earth Science database, so just searching for biology data makes this catalogue a tool for us.

Note, that these are not strict sources nor the only ones for each division. These are just some of the major ones for each division, in which we have more specific databases inside them. For more NASA’s open data resources, this site is quite useful.

Many Space Agencies are looking forward to increasing the worldwide knowledge about their missions, research and activities. We consider this a critical point for present and future generations, humanity needs to keep moving forward at bigger and faster rates. That is why we are willing to help them reach more people in an innovative, attractive and effective way, so that they really get into it.

If we revise data given by various Space Agencies, they focus relatively on the same big topics, providing similar information, results, etcetera. We can realize that many of these have a huge lack of awareness from the population. We are faithful believers in the idea that making this information more attractive and easy to access will encourage people to get informed and take actions to help humanity growth.

How would you describe your Space Apps experience? 

Space Apps was a very full package experience since the beginning of the boot bootcamp up to this final minutes. There's no doubt we finish this hacakthon with bigger dreams and higher goals.

What did you learn? 

We learned a lot about NASA's divisions on their SMD, how they are managed, what can we find about them, how to work as a team in order to bring and realize the different ideas.

What inspired your team to choose this challenge?

We consider the approach to people to this topics as essential for present and future generations in order to keep moving forward and create awareness about them.

What was your approach to developing this project? 

Helping NASA to reach more people in an attractive and interactive game so that people get really into it.

How did your team resolve setbacks and challenges? 

All-day long constant communication and splitting tasks as a team.

Is there anyone you'd like to thank and why?

All Space Apps staff, judges, organizers, and generally all the people behind this hacakthon who made it possible.

[1] National Aeronautics and Space Administration, (n.d.). NASA Astrophysics. Retrieved from: https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics

[2] National Aeronautics and Space Administration, (n.d.). NASA Planetary Science. Retrieved from: https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system

[3] National Aeronautics and Space Administration, (n.d.). NASA Heliophysics. Retrieved from: https://science.nasa.gov/heliophysics

[4] National Aeronautics and Space Administration, (n.d.). NASA Earth Science. Retrieved from: https://science.nasa.gov/earth-science

[5] National Aeronautics and Space Administration, (n.d.). NASA Biological & Physical Sciences. Retrieved from: https://science.nasa.gov/biological-physical

[6] National Aeronautics and Space Administration, (2020). Science 2020-2024: A Vision for Scientific Excellence. Retrieved from: https://science.nasa.gov/science-red/s3fs-public/atoms/files/2020-2024_Science.pdf

[7] National Aeronautics and Space Administration, (n.d.). Data from NASA's Missions, Research, and Activities. Retrieved from: https://www.nasa.gov/open/data.html

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This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.