High-Level Project Summary
As our most impactful celestial neighbor, it is essential that groups like NASA study the Sun and its behavior, in order to help us better understand stars and planet habitability elsewhere in our universe, the effects of the heliosphere on our home planet and solar system, and develop new tools for predicting solar events and space weather that can disrupt humanity’s presence on Earth and in space. We chose to develop an interactive and immersive website in order to raise public awareness, highlight the importance, and heighten the appreciation for NASA's Heliophysics Division and the study of Heliophysics as a whole.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
Project Summary and Goals:
To solve the challenge, “Unlocking the Secrets of the Sun”, we chose to develop an interactive website for public impact consisting of 3D models, immersive audio and videos, as well as an educational blog.
Our main goal was to create an engaging platform that would help raise public knowledge and awareness about the study of Heliophysics, its importance, and its relevance to our every day lives, and excite users about the possibilities of future solar exploration. We also aimed to communicate the necessity of NASA’s Heliophysics division as well as educate users about various Heliophysics missions, including Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter, through a creative web interface, simulating the experience of traveling on a solar expedition.
The website content includes informative text, graphics, gifs, and models that help to illustrate the key concepts being described. We also included a search bar, so the user may research further any unfamiliar terminology, in order to better understand and enjoy the rest of the website. Throughout the page, we also wanted to emphasize the power and importance of collaboration between the various space agencies of the world, aligning with the 2021 Space Apps theme; The Power of Ten.
In addition to educating the public, we aimed to raise enthusiasm for the study of Heliophysics, by including an interactive quiz, featuring different difficulty levels and various questions regarding the subject of Heliophysics and our solar system.
Methodology:
Throughout the process of building this website, we wanted to ensure a fun and engaging experience for the user, so we focused on using creative visualization tools to express the educational content.
These are some of the steps we took to design and compile various aspects of the website.
- Code the website
Languages-HTMLS & CSS
software-Replit
- Record and edit educational videos using software such as Final Cut Pro, as well as videos, images, and animation provided by various NASA resources. We also wrote informative scripts and recorded voiceovers to accompany the visualizations.
- Integrate GIFs and animated characters into our website in order to express informative content in a creative way.
- Build and integrate 3D models of the Sun, Earth, and various Heliophysics spacecraft, using software such as Blender.
- Write content for our educational blog and prepare the rest of the informative text for the website.
- Compose and integrate an interactive quiz using Python, in order to engage users and promote interactivity.
- Compose a survey using Typeform, in order to get feedback from our page visitors.
Importance of the Project:
Heliophysics as a science is essential to not only understanding the mysteries of our solar system and beyond but to protecting our presence both in space and here on Earth. From studying the harmful effects of space weather on astronauts, space stations, satellites, and even technology on our home planet, to learning more about how the heliosphere impacts the space in our solar system in order to better prepare for future space exploration - ensuring that groups like NASA continue to observe and study our central star is crucial to future of space exploration as well as our own future here on Earth.
This is why visualization tools for public engagement, like this one, are so important.
Our project emphasizes using multiple forms of immersive communication and visualization tools, in order to provide the best educational experience to the user. We focused on using fun, engaging methods to involve users, including science and NASA enthusiasts as well as those not previously interested in space science. As Harrison Ford once wrote (on the topic of conservation) we need to “ reach beyond those who agree with us. Find those who need to hear this story and learn how to reach them. "
As we move forward into the next generation, we must make continual efforts using engaging and immersive platforms/interfaces, in order to inform, educate, and inspire the public to support vital scientific research and technology development in the field of Heliophysics and beyond.
Looking Ahead:
In the future, we believe this website could be developed even more thoroughly, more engaging features could be added, and the website could ultimately be expanded to reach a more comprehensive and immersive level.
If given more time we would incorporate even more interactivity with the inclusion of a design-your-own solar expedition game/ survey portal. There are also opportunities to expand our NASA mission database to include more spacecraft and to include a live spacecraft tracking software that would show the user the location and stats of major Heliophysics missions at any time. The blog portion of the website holds the potential to develop into a community, where interested parties could share ideas and knowledge about the future of solar exploration. The website interface and format could also be developed even more to make the simulative mission experience more realistic.
Updates like this would promote user engagement and education at an even higher level.
Space Agency Data
Throughout this project we used data and resources provided by:
- NASA Scientific Visualization Studio(SVS)
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/search/?search=parker+solar+probe&sort_by=relevance
- Science@NASA: The Sun
https://science.nasa.gov/heliophysics
Hackathon Journey
The Space Apps Challenge was an exciting experience in which we were able to collaborate and share ideas with other like minded science enthusiasts from around the world. It provided the amazing opportunity to learn new and valuable skills from self research and from each other! Our team's approach to tackling any challenges we encountered during the process, was to communicate and discuss issues, thoughts, and ideas through brainstorming and discussion sessions. In this way, we could ensure that we found the best solution possible.
We were inspired to choose the "Unlocking the Secrets of the Sun" Challenge, because of our mutual interests in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics, as well as our belief in the power of STEM education. The global sharing of data, research, and knowledge with the general public is crucial to evolving both our technology and life on Earth, and to the future of space science and exploration.
References
NASA Scientific Visualization Studio(SVS)
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/search/?search=parker+solar+probe&sort_by=relevance
Science@NASA: The Sun
https://science.nasa.gov/heliophysics
Pexels.com
Final Cut Pro X. vs.10.4.6
Blender
Typeform
Python
HTML / CSS
Replit
Tags
#STEMeducation #video #heliophysics #website #interactive #Sun #solarmissions #coding #NASAheliophysics #education
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.