Hero Parker

Taoyuan | Creative Data Display with the Parker Solar Probe

PerSPective - a fun solar data display and interactive device including website and firmware

High-Level Project Summary

We built a website to have a basic introduction to the Parker Solar Probe and Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) with easy-to-understand words to enable people to learn knowledge on the solar probe. Also, we display the real-time solar wind data provided by the ACE open source in a beautiful format. For the hardware section, we used the Arduino and water mixed with the iron powder to stimulate particles emitted by the sun. The intention is that solar wind can be approached in a fun way. At last, we connect the Arduino to a simple website to show the high possibility of fully connecting the device and website, it provides knowledge supplements so people can learn while playing.

Link to Final Project

https://github.com/xiang221/NASA_Hackathon

Link to Project "Demo"

https://www.canva.com/design/DAFN3tCmzGw/F05FnnSJO2FA0OhhQrBmTw/view?utm_content=DAFN3tCmzGw&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Detailed Project Description

What exactly does it do? How does it work?

What benefits does it have? What do you hope to achieve?

Overview

The goal of PerSPective is to let people learn how and why NASA explores the Sun and its effect on the Earth in an easier way. PerSPective includes three parts:

●PerSPective provides people with easy access to information about the solar system, including the importance of the Parker Solar Probe, Space weather, Solar wind, and their influence.

●PerSPective shows ACE real-time data of Solar wind clearly. People can save time searching for data.

●Connecting the website with the firmware, PerSPective visualizes Solar wind by using iron powders and water flow. Iron powders stand for charged particles while water flow stands for Solar wind. PerSPective enables people to imagine real-time data easily in a fun and interactive way.

Data Display

1.Website

●Introduction to Space weather.

Users can click the Sun on PerSPective website and thus make the Sun releases some charged particles. Because of Solar wind, the communications, GPS, and power systems on the Earth may be interfered with, as well as satellites and spacecraft.

●Introduction to Solar wind

We show the magnetic field of the Sun and the Earth in a picture easy to understand. In addition, we explain how Solar wind forms and how magnetic field protects our Earth. Most importantly, PerSPective provides the latest 24 hours ACE real-time data of Solar wind, including low-energy protons, low-energy electrons, magnetic field, plasma, and high-energy protons.

●Introduction to Parker Solar Probe

Parker Solar Probe is the first probe that passes through the corona of the Sun and explores some unknown fields of the Sun. Because of its importance, we think we should introduce our hero: Parker Solar Probe, its mission, and its orbit to people around the world.

●Introduction to ACE

We introduce ACE's mission and its data source, including EPAM, MAG, SWEPAM, and SIS.

●Connection to the device

We try to set a button to interact with the physical device. (Not completed yet)

2.Device

The physical device of PerSPective shows the interaction of the magnetic field between the Sun and the Earth. It works like a fun experiment as well as a special artwork. We hope that it can arouse the interest of both adults and kids to learn more details about the solar wind and the magnetic field.

To begin with, the water flow containing many iron powders stands for solar wind with charged particles emitted by the Sun. As they flow to the Earth, iron powders will be attracted by the Neodymium magnet in it and thus show the magnetic lines around the Earth. When it’s bad space weather, the water flow will become bigger by activating more water pumps.

What’s more, Solar wind may also cause stunning auroras near the north and south poles, which are displayed by the color-changing LEDs.

What tools, coding languages, hardware, or software did you use to develop your project?

Software

1.Frontend : JavaScript(NextJS), D3.js

We deploy it on Vercel. Using NextJS for the frontend framework, and using D3.js to draw Charts, which are based on the data from the backend through getting API. Besides, send data to the server and control Arduino.

2.Backend: Python

We deploy a server on Heroku for the requests from the web page, every time users click a button, the server will first download and parse the solar wind’s data from the NASA Solarsoft website, then return to show the data on the screen.

Hardware

Components and Supplies in our demo: mini water pumps, Arduino UNO, esp01 wifi module, neodymium magnet, LEDs, iron powder, batteries, relays, jumper wires, breadboard, resistors, acrylic, and plastic pipe.

1. 3D CAD model

(the left and bigger one is the sun, and the other one is the earth)

2.The combination of software and hardware

The whole system is a water cycle, water and the iron powder in the sink will be pumped onto the plate, flow to the earth, and drain to the sink. The model is higher on the left-hand side, letting the water and the iron powder flow toward the lower side by gravity. The water pumps will pump water through the plastic pipe to the holes in front of the sun, acting like a water source, and the neodymium magnet inside the earth will cause the iron powder to form the magnetic field line. Also, there are 9 holes in order to drain the flow, 6 at the north and south poles of the earth, and 3 at the rear of the earth.

3.Arduino

The water pump is controlled by Arduino pins along with the relays to drive it, and each LED is connected with a 330Ω resistor in series to reduce the voltage, the earth LEDs which are placed at the north and south poles stand for the aurora on the earth, while the sun LEDs present the brightness of the sun. The ESP8266 is used to connect the website and Arduino.

4.Schematic of Circuit

The way we connect software and hardware is using esp8266 esp01 wifi module. It’s an Arduino module that can be the communication bridge between a website and Arduino. However, the way they communicate is quite complicated, we didn’t successfully connect our website and our Arduino system in the end. Still, we have a small successful demo that connects a simple testing website and our Arduino system, this demo video is in our demo ppt. Due to time constraints, we did not achieve what we originally imagined. We believe that if we had more time, we can complete our work. This is one of the future tasks we need to do.

Space Agency Data

We used ACE real-time solar wind data from the space weather prediction center (URL:https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/ace-real-time-solar-wind). This source provides the real-time electrons, protons, magnetic field, and solar wind data detected from our Sun.

Hackathon Journey

How would you describe your Space Apps experience?

Our team, Hero Parker, consists of explorers majoring in different fields. We often have quite different opinions and thus spend plenty of time compiling everyone’s ideas during this challenge. We will describe our Space Apps experience as a trip to an unknown region of the Sun since some of us haven’t gone deep into astronomy before. Nevertheless, we are all interested in space and following news from NASA. Working on PerSPective, we act like Parker Solar Probe exploring the Sun, but we have many co-working fellows!

What did you learn? What inspired your team to choose this challenge?

We learn that solar activities may affect our lives a lot. As a result, people should pay attention to it. In addition, we learn what Parker Solar Probe is and what’s its mission. We think the story of Parker Solar Probe is very inspiring and look forward to its discovery in the future. As a result, we choose this challenge, hoping that with PerSPective’s creative display, more people will be interested in the solar activities and Parker Solar Probe.

What was your approach to developing this project?

Our project can be divided into two parts: the website and the firmware. We work in a meeting room together and discuss our ideas in time. Our members of two parts do brainstorming together most of the time. The physical device is made by the firmware partners and operated by all the members.

How did your team resolve setbacks and challenges?

Our physical device contains a lot of electronic components, but it has to combine with the water system, so it’s critical to protect the electronic components from getting wet. Also, the combination of website and hardware is such a difficult task, in the end, we didn’t successfully connect our website with our Arduino system to make a thorough device. Still, we connect a simple testing website and our Arduino system successfully, indicating that it has a high possibility to build the whole system.

Is there anyone you'd like to thank and why?

First, Hero Parker would like to thank Arthur Yang for assistance with the website setting. Second, thanks to NTU Dschool for providing us with laser cutting equipment. Last but not least, thanks for the food provided by NASA Local Host in Taiwan.