Space Healers

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dkoIeMSU0qS1AqUE8o9hy4qhGMmGmhej/view

https://t.me/Houston2021_bot

The goal of our project is to increase the level of awareness and curiosity about space among middle schoolers. We decided to accomplish it by creating the Telegram bot in which everyone can test his knowledge of risks involved in human spaceflight and challenge himself. A user will be in the role of one of the crewmen ( a captain, a crew member or a doctor). He will face different difficulties during a voyage from Earth to Mars such as significant excess of radiation levels after a solar storm and spase adaptation syndrome. He will need to make rational decisions in emergencies. He will receive goals for correct answers. If he makes a mistake, the bot will give explanation why the answer is wrong and will return a child to the question. At the end, a user will get the result of test and percentage of correct answers. Moreover, we want to transform our chat bot into an animated game in the future. 

Our team has a business idea how to make our program popular among schoolers and profitable. We want to encourage children to share their feedbacks about our chat in social media and invite their friends. Furthermore, we can collaborate with different educational organizations to promote the idea among schoolers that space is closer than it seems

How did we use space agency data in our project?

Because our project is a text quest created as Telegram bot, we used space agency data to create a questions for quest. Our main goal is to make our project as realistic as it's possible - we're trying to submit information to our user clearly. We're interested in giving our user true and confirmed information and give them chance to improve their knowledge about space journeys without special qualification. The sci-fi films that are now too popular have generated a large number of myths about astronautics and astronauts activities. Our goal is to debunk these myths and bring the truth to the masses, especial to schoolers. When we wrote the scenario of the quest and its tasks, we used data from NASA research. The Quset was built in the form of a dialogue - negotiations between the crew members of the spacecraft and the MCC in Houston. The answers to the quest questions are different - there are absolutely correct and absolutely incorrect, there are correct, but half. By creating different options for answers, we evaluated their correctness using data from NASA studies. In addition, we also used this data for a detailed study of the plot - all critical situations and everyday life of astronauts, on which special emphasis is placed in the quest, are created on the basis of real cases. The prototype for one of the missions was the Apollo 13 mission case.

How it inspired our project?

NASA data on critical situations that astronauts unfortunately face during their missions. We were deeply impressed by such cases as the Challenger tragedy and the death of the Columbia shuttle crew. But most of all, the Apollo 13 mission influenced the topic of our project, during which the astronauts faced many problems, and successfully overcame them, being completely cut off from the Earth, not counting radio communications. We were so imbued with this story of the struggle for life in Earth's orbit that we chose Jim Lovell's famous phrase "Houston, we have a problem!" as the name of our project, the purpose of which is to tell schoolchildren about how astronauts live and overcome difficulties far from the Earth, from home. We weren't the only ones who liked this inspiring story. Many schoolchildren who are interested in space are also inspired by similar stories and decide to become astronauts. The starting point for these children is usually a trip to the NASA space camp, where they can feel like real astronauts. Unfortunately, getting into such a camp is not easy right now due to the coronavirus pandemic. There are also children who cannot go there for other reasons. Therefore, we want to give everyone a chance to feel like astronauts and make the right choice regarding the profession in the future. We were inspired to create tasks and quest questions and used as their basis the MCC's negotiations with the astronauts of the Apollo, Shuttle and ISS missions. We hope that our quest will help schoolchildren make their dreams come true and feel like a real astronaut.

Our path at the hackathon was swift and extremely busy. In just 48 hours, we came up with our own project practically from scratch and implemented it with our own efforts. During our work, we had to turn to data from NASA and the European Space Agency research, study and systematize them, using previously obtained knowledge and obtaining new ones in the process. As a result of hard work, we have acquired new skills and improved old ones. We have learned to find optimal and non-standard solutions at the first glance of insoluble challenges. We learned how to quickly adapt to new working conditions and use new, unfamiliar tools. Working with data from NASA and other agencies was especially useful - we improved our ability to analyze and organize data, find the necessary information and submit it to a specific group of users. In addition to exclusively scientific and technical skills, our team also went through the regular stage of team building and solidarity, because this is not the first hackathon in which we participate with this composition. To choose exactly such a challenge that we were inspired by the experience of the Apollo 13 mission. We were deeply impressed by how astronauts, located far from Earth, and connected with humanity only by radio communication, successfully fought with serious malfunctions on board the ship that posed a threat to their lives. Apollo 13's "lucky failure" inspired us to create a quest in which everyone can feel like an astronaut and face the dangers and extreme situations that real astronauts face.

1. https://humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov/Reports/
2. https://www.nasa.gov/hrp/bodyinspace
3. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/can-space-gardening-help-astronauts-cope-with-isolation
4. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/spaceflight-standard-measures-characterizing-how-humans-adapt-in-space
5. https://srag.jsc.nasa.gov/SpaceRadiation/How/How.cfm
6. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1013 
7. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1577
8. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=640
9. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=955
10. https://humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov/Tasks/task.aspx?i=1176
11. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=964
12. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-twins-study-results-published-in-science
13. https://www.nasa.gov/twins-study/research
14. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1549
15. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20130000048
16. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1837
17. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo13.html
18. https://www.nasa.gov/hrp/hazards
19. https://www.esa.int/kids/en/Games
20. https://sapiens.ui8.net
21. https://flowxo.com
22. https://www.figma.com

#Mars #education #schoolers #students #spaceflight #astronauts #health #weightless #games

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