The Trail to Mars: Can You Keep Your Crew Alive

Background

The health risks of long-distance space exploration are numerous and varied. Astronauts on space voyages will experience microgravity in space, hypergravity (high gravity forces) during launch and landing, emotional effects due to the distance from Earth, disrupted sleep and circadian rhythms, limited access to medical care, and more. Many of these core risks and challenges are detailed in scientific publications and data (e.g., spaceflight-caused changes in gene expression, in proteins released by cells, in metabolites in serum, etc.) available from NASA. Determining the worst health risks and the most successful methods of mitigation over both short and long time periods is crucial to ensure astronaut health during long-distance space voyages.

Objectives

Your challenge is to create an educational game for middle schoolers that focuses on keeping an avatar alive and healthy during a voyage to Mars (or perhaps a destination even further in the solar system or beyond) and back to Earth.

Potential Considerations

In your game design, you may (but are not required to) consider the following:

• A suggested goal is to determine the worst health risks and the most successful methods of mitigation over both short and long time periods.
• Your game could include options to ensure that the avatar sleeps, exercises, hides in a shielded area when a solar particle event suddenly occurs, fixes communications systems when that solar particle event damages them, consumes antioxidants, communicates with the family back on Earth, etc.
• Your game could include links to actual research to stimulate scientific curiosity.
• In addition to the middle school audience, your game might also be of interest to scientists, including space biologists, for use as a modeling tool. For example, the game could help identify the main risks and the best strategies to reduce negative effects for the given flight distance and mission duration, using the available mitigation techniques.
• Your game could potentially incorporate the following factors:
  • Both constant risks (e.g., microgravity, radiation from galactic cosmic rays, disrupted sleep) and occasional risks (e.g., solar particle events, an acute disease without a trained doctor)
  • Different time periods: e.g., What is the probability of facing a given risk during a single year on the Moon? During a three-year trip to Mars and back? During a voyage that involves a 10-year stay on Mars? Are the main issues the same or different?
  • The effects of varying crew composition and size: e.g., What are the consequences of including one (or perhaps two) doctors as crew members?
  • The effects of providing access to medication, specific foods, and exercise, or enabling behavioral changes and interventions
  • An option to focus on a single organ or broadly examine the organism as a whole.
  • The capability to expand the stressors and change parameters to adapt the game to different needs and audiences in the future.

For data and resources related to this challenge, refer to the Resources tab at the top of the page. More resources may be added before the hackathon begins.

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