ARES II

Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro | Unlocking the Secrets of the Sun

Hélio

High-Level Project Summary

We've developed a website to spread information about solar missions and their importance to humankind. The idea is to make people aware that the missions are not a waste of tax money, and that it's being well spent for future generations. The element Helium-3 has been increasingly being brought up in space topics, and that element comes from solar radiation, which our atmosphere deflects, so we intend to make people understand the importance of these missions, while still learning about our beloved star.

Link to Project "Demo"

https://www.powtoon.com/s/f7RhVL9iFYF/1/m

Link to Final Project

https://learnaboutthesun.wordpress.com/

Detailed Project Description

The project has in its core mission, to give out information on why exploring the sun and using millions of dollars to do so, is not a waste of money, but an investment. In the last few years all major countries have been fighting to see who will colonize the moon first. You might wonder, why are they doing such a thing? Well, the moon has an enormous amount of Helium-3, which is the element that promises to bring clean energy to the whole planet, and He-3 comes from the sun's radiation. So why don't we have that element on Earth, only on the moon? The element can be found on our blue planet, but only in small quantities, since we have radiation shielding due to our planet's thick atmosphere. The moon however, does not, so the Helium-3 gets stored on the surface of the natural satellite.

We intend to present, with that idea, why the money is being well spent on solar missions. To accomplish this, we've created a project that could explain in a simple way all of this and more, so we created a website, with Wordpress, which is a well-known site creator. In the site you can learn about several aspects of our star and in an easy way.

Space Agency Data

We used public images from NASA, as well as other Space Agencies, such as ESA and AEB to feature to the public accurate data and increase their visual engagement with the scientific investigations. Futhermore, We also used the public NASA data for our website, including information and pictures of the Parker Solar Probe and the Sun Orbiter. However, we had to search for several pieces of data to help us learn about the content and then be able to explain in a simpler way to the public.

Hackathon Journey

First of all, it's interesting to say that none of the members have previous experience in hackathons or in application development, so participating in this competition was an innovative opportunity in several spheres for the team. In addition, a very important point about what was provided by SpaceApps is in relation to the exchange of knowledge between the members of the group, because, despite each one acting in different fields and, therefore, having more facility with a certain area, we always sought to use and explain to each other all research results and ideas. Thus, SpaceApps gives us a chance to learn about content related not only to the Sun, but also to assembling applications, in a more dynamic and simple way, that is, through the help and support of colleagues.

In addition, to collect data on the content that would be used in the application, it was necessary to study about the Sun, its characteristics and influence on the Earth, which allowed us to expand our understanding of these themes and how it was necessary to present them. them to the public, this motivated us even more to deepen our understanding of the issues. That's because we tried to transmit our knowledge to society in a didactic and clear way, in a way that everyone understood the importance of learning about this very essential star and how it works. Furthermore, we also take into account the reach of the material and an easy way of spreading it for everyone to have it.

It is also worth noting that one of the great challenges faced by Ares II was time. The idea of planning and developing an app project in two days can seem quite daunting. With that in mind, however, the group organized itself, creating timelines and to-do lists with deadlines so that everything was done on time and nothing was forgotten.

Regarding the choice of challenge, Ares II opted for Unlocking the Secrets of the Sun, because it focuses on a very significant factor valued by the team, scientific dissemination. As actors in this environment and individuals in society, we understand the importance of bringing research, experiments and scientific results to people's reach. Having contact, mainly in a playful and relaxed way, with relevant content focused, for example, on the Sun, makes the scientific sector more attractive and teaches people about topics that, although not so trivial, are interesting, explains a lot about our world and helps us to think more critically and boldly about the universe.

Furthermore, another decisive factor for the selection of the challenge is the fact that we are part of a university team focused on the aerospace sector, the Ares Project. Gathered by this passion, we seek to enter competitions that demand from us constant research on themes close to the theme addressed in this challenge. Therefore, because we are familiar with the topic and we like it so much, we chose to participate in it.

Finally, we can say that our experience in this hackathon was different from anything we've done in the fact that we are dealing with both a short deadline and a topic far from what we've had contact with, namely, application development. However, this made us challenge our capabilities and go out of the ordinary, which became a great motivator for us throughout the project. So, despite the setbacks and challenges, we were happy with the result and with the opportunity to participate in SpaceApps.