HANDAKA Space Exploration

https://www.figma.com/proto/cR2XK8D2DI2rBMNGnspXx0/Space-Intern-Slides?page-id=0%3A1&node-id=1%3A2&viewport=241%2C48%2C0.13&scaling=contain&starting-point-node-id=1%3A2

http://spaceintern.fun/

How we met the challenge.

The physical and psychological challenges posed by long-term space flight entails that certain counter-measures must be undertaken by astronauts to maintain their physical and mental health. The space crew must adopt responsibility and discipline in accomplishing the daily tasks in order to survive and successfully fulfill one’s roles during the Mars Space Mission.

According to NASA (2021), here are the main threats to our space crew for long-term spaceflight:

1. Space Radiation,
2. Isolation & Confinement,
3. Distance from Earth,
4. Gravity Fields, and 
5. Closed Environment.

One of the topics that Space Intern tackles is how nutrition plays a crucial role in maintaining the space crew’s overall health. The player as a Space Intern will manage the Veggie garden (currently present in the ISS) and provided fresh vegetables that can be produced on a Mars Mission addition to the standard MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) and dehydrated foods. Planting/harvesting of vegetables and meal preparation will be integrated within two minigames of Space Intern.

References:

Growing plants in space. (2019, April 9). NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/content/growing-plants-in-space

NASA astronaut paints a picture of success growing plants in space. (2021, April 27). NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-astronaut-paints-a-picture-of-success-growing-plants-in-space

What is Space Intern?

Space Intern is an interactive story RPG where you play an intern on NASA’s first mission to Mars. Your crew faces a variety of challenges and dangers, and as the Intern, it’s your job to make sure everything and everyone returns home safely. If you succeed you can add this to your resume, but fail and you'll be stuck floating in space. The game features quirky illustrations drawn and animated by a 12-year-old. It requires NO DOWNLOAD and can be played for free on any modern browser that supports WebGL and Unity.

Main Objectives

The Space Intern aims to introduce and explore the aforementioned challenges astronauts will face when traveling by simulating a roundtrip mission to Mars. To help the mission succeed the player "Intern" will be tasked to accomplish a list of everyday activities delegated by mission control and their fellow crewmates. The game incorporates tasks such as discussing topics on sleep patterns, dealing with hyper and microgravity, cosmic radiation, physical exercise, and meal planning, to mention a few. 

Benefits

• Made by a diverse team of varying ages and educational backgrounds including kids.
• Integrates a cohesive storyline of a simplified yet realistic space exploration experience
• Engages the target audience through a variety of minigame activities of spaceflight-concerned tasks 
• Provides users with an opportunity to interact with astronauts in the game, wherein players can experience what it’s like working under actual professionals, and have a taste of their work 
• Provides a real impact on students as Space Intern can easily be integrated within classroom work and browsing on NASA’s website
• Provides an integrated educational user experience (eg. displaying “quick facts” pop-ups in minigame introduction cards/instruction pages or “notification” style animation during the minigames)
• Accessibility: Developed on Unity as a WebGL for HTML, Space Intern is easily accessible on the web and consequently can be deployed into NASA’s website for wider public access.
• Space Intern integrates culturally relevant references within one minigame (eg. Importance of preparing and sharing meals in dealing with isolation in space)
• Provides interactive user experiences through the decision-making process that affects the quality and direction of your player's space mission (eg. completing assigned tasks for minigames)

As Filipino-Americans we have also included our culture of “salo-salo”, which translates to “eating together” as vital to crew mental health and camaraderie. We want to emphasize to young children the importance of eating together and how preparing meals is a language of love and will be important as we venture into space.

We chatted with a SME (Subject Matter Expert) who experienced 520 days of Isolated Confined Experiments (ICE)

Taken from a personal interview with a participant experienced in Human Spaceflight, specifically Crew Support:

“In our crew for this simulated trip to Mars, we were from very different cultures and the main topic for our discussions around the table was...FOOD! We would talk endlessly about the best food in our countries, the craziest food in our countries, etc. -Raimin, 2020”

Minigames

Make decisions and solve puzzles in a variety of story minigames that affect the health and safety of their crew. 

1. Don’t forget to check your email and tasks every day
2. Floating equipment can be hazardous! Velcro everything down.
3. Learn how food is prepared in space and why mealtime is so important
4. Don’t forget to sleep! A growing intern needs a lot of rest.

Target Audience: Middle School (*10-14 years old)

Estimated Playtime: 15-20 minutes

Human Space Flight Hazards & Effects -The following were used as the main basis for the Minigames integrated within Space Intern. Topics discussed mainly focus on the physical effects of space flight and certain measures that must be taken to mitigate its damaging effects on the human body. 

• https://www.nasa.gov/hrp/bodyinspace
• https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nasa.gov/hrp/5-hazards-of-human-spaceflight&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1633272505512000&usg=AOvVaw3-VcuwU2VzhrZiFusStEl7

Sleep Disturbance / Circadian Rhythms - Data on sleep disturbances and maintaining a healthy circadian rhythm was used as one of the examples in the minigame on sleep. Aside from medications, sedatives & Sleep Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) as options to help induce sleep in space, the data on having sleep schedules/rotations and integrating timed lighting control was featured in the game. 

• https://www.space.com/35293-how-astronauts-sleep-in-space.html 

Food Preparation & Nutrition - One aspect to enhance meal planning, preparation and nutrition is growing vegetables in space. The reference below cites how astronauts have recently successfully produced their own vegetables as part of their space agriculture research, with “Extra Dwarf” pak choi as one the main produce from the Veggie garden. Other vegetables grown on these are lettuce, Chinese cabbage, mizuna mustard, and kale. 

• https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-astronaut-paints-a-picture-of-success-growing-plants-in-space
• https://www.nasa.gov/content/growing-plants-in-space

3D Printing for Cooking - An addition to meal planning experience in space is the introduction of cooking through 3D printing technology, specifically for making pizza. The Chef 3D is currently undergoing research and development which aims to provide astronauts a revolutionary way of enjoying space food aside from their pre-packed dehydrated meals. 

• https://futurism.com/nasa-astronauts-can-now-3d-print-pizzas-in-space

Trash & Waste Disposal - Waste disposal is one of the factors that can ensure cleanliness and hygiene among crew members in the spacecraft. In the game, one of the final tasks consists of managing waste accumulated from the trip which will either be returned to Earth or burned up in the atmosphere during spaceflight. 

• https://www.nasa.gov/feature/recycling-in-space-waste-handling-in-a-microgravity-environment-challenge

Solar Radiation, Cosmic Radiation & Galactic Cosmic Rays - Daily monitoring of the space weather forecast is essential in ensuring a safe spaceflight. It is through the data on here that the space crew can plan their activities safely and accordingly. These also determine whether additional measures, such as entering the water-walled compartments and creating barricades within the spacecraft, are essential in dealing with SPEs and cosmic radiation threats. 

• https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/video/lrc_20171010_journey-to-mars_ne1111.mp4 
• https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/how-nasa-protects-astronauts-from-space-radiation-at-moon-mars-solar-cosmic-rays 
• https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/video/lrc_20171010_journey-to-mars_ne1111.mp4 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpNa4u997xA

Exercise - One of the consequences brought by microgravity is muscle atrophy. The main solution in mitigating these damaging effects is engaging in physical activity on the ARED, an advanced resistive exercise device, and the treadmill. This information is integrated within the game’s storyline as one of the most crucial everyday activities in space. 

• https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstrations-exercise.html

Brainstorming

We started by asking ourselves questions about what our game could be and doodling in Figma. We decided that we wanted players to feel that they were a part of something and that they were allowed to learn on the job and as college students, we shared our experiences as interns leading us to our concept of Space Intern.

Once we had our concept we started drafting a story flow and we settled on the idea of an intern who is just trying to get job experience and ends up getting an internship on the first Mission to Mars

Concept Art

We had wonderful concept art and Doodles from our 12-year old illustrator to deliver a game that was approachable, fun, and familiar to kids 10-14 years old. We took inspiration from comic books and the doodles we would make in our notebooks back when we were in middle school.

Game Design

We choose to develop our game using Unity after evaluating different game engines like Unreal Engine, Gamemaker Studio, and RPG Maker MV and did experiment with text-based games made with Twinery. We chose Unity because it is approachable and easy to use and supports WebGL so we could make the game on a browser. This means we can embed our game in NASA's Official Website and allow millions of kids to play our game without having to download the game on their device. We initially wanted to make a mobile game but we made this consideration after discovering that many kids who have access to these devices are borrowing them and are not allowed to download games from the internet.

Challenges Faced

We lost our lead storyteller on the second day which was a huge blow to our team as we are a STORY based game. We also had to deal with Unity's learning curve as only one member of our team regularly makes games. We also switched our text-based engine from Twine

Who are we?

HANDAKA Space Exploration is a group of college students taking up Game Design, Computer Science, and Multimedia Studies based in New York and Manila. Our graphic designer is just 12 years old but is interested in digital art, animation, and video games.

Made with ♡ from the USA 🇺🇸 and the PHILIPPINES 🇵🇭

About our Team Logo

Our team leader designed the logo for HANDAKA Space Exploration three years ago at his first NASA Space Apps hackathon back in 2019. The top text is in a Robotika version of the ancient Filipino script BAYBAYIN which spells out HANDAKA to show our Filipino roots and we decided to have white SPACE to show the limited space that we know and the vast darkness that there is to still explore.

Resources

Gohd, C. (2017, March 7). NASA astronauts can No. 3D-Print pizzas in space. Futurism. https://futurism.com/nasa-astronauts-can-now-3d-print-pizzas-in-space

Growing plants in space. (2019, April 9). NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/content/growing-plants-in-space

How NASA will protect astronauts from space radiation at the moon. (2019, August 5). NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/how-nasa-protects-astronauts-from-space-radiation-at-moon-mars-solar-cosmic-rays

How NASA will protect astronauts from space radiation at the moon. (2019, August 8). NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/how-nasa-protects-astronauts-from-space-radiation-at-moon-mars-solar-cosmic-rays

NASA astronaut paints a picture of success growing plants in space. (2021, April 27). NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-astronaut-paints-a-picture-of-success-growing-plants-in-space

NASA. (2017, December 6). STEMonstrations: Exercise. https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstrations-exercise.html

NASA. (2019). How NASA Will Protect Astronauts From Space Radiation [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpNa4u997xA

NASA. (2020). What is One of the Greatest Challenges for an Astronaut on the Journey to Mars? [Video]. https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/video/lrc_20171010_journey-to-mars_ne1111.mp4

Waste handling in a microgravity environment challenge. (2018, October 10). NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/recycling-in-space-waste-handling-in-a-microgravity-environment-challenge

Weitering, H. (2017, March 16). Sleeping in space: How astronauts get a good night's rest. Space.com. https://www.space.com/35293-how-astronauts-sleep-in-space.html

What happens to the human body in space? (2021, February 3). NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/hrp/bodyinspace

Software Tools Used

• Github Repository (Game Code) https://github.com/Koniiro/SpaceIntern
• Figma - Brainstorming and Prototype
• Krita - Concept Art
• Illustrator
• Unity - Minigames
• Yarn Spinner for Unity - Interactive Story Dialogue
• VSCode - Preferred IDE

#Mars #videogame #SpaceAppsNYC #SpaceAppsMNL

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