High-Level Project Summary
We tried to make a map of moonquakes because there are short term projects for sending humans to the moon again like the Artemis base camp that is planned for 2024 and in the long term we will be able to live on the Moon and colonize it. When we build a base on the moon, we might need information on how moonquakes can damage buildings.The important thing is making sure the map is easy to understand, creative and useful for various people. Additionally we focused on showing and teaching this to the general people such as not scientists, students, especially targeting girls and women. Throughout this challenge, we were able to show the importance and interest about trying to go to the moon.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
Our project is to make an application that shows the moonquake data on the map of the moon. In 2024, NASA is planning to send some astronauts to the moon to start the Artemis 2 project. From then on, we need to build some constructions to live there. When we think about buildings, moonquakes will be one of the threats. Our team members are all from earthquake-prone areas, so we know the disaster of the earthquake. When we send astronauts and make a moon base, our first interest is “Is it safe there?” By using our production, people can know where the astronauts should land and build a moon base.
Our first target is the researchers including scientists and engineers. We also focus on the general people to make them interested in space research. So, our website is focusing not only on providing professional data, but also accessible and attractive for any person.
The two main parts of our website are “History” and “Prediction”. In the History part, users can see the information on moonquakes that already happened. And in the “Prediction” page, users can see the information on the moonquakes that are predicted to happen. In both parts, the website shows both 2D and 3D maps of the moon.
In the history part, the system shows the following information: location; magnitude; date; time; type; effect.
We utilized software such as ArcGIS to help visualize a 3D Globe. Furthermore we utilized Python as our coding language and we used GoDaddy to help create our Website. Our final goal we would like to achieve is to create a 3D seismic map on the moon that displays over time and it would display information such as their magnitude, types and impact. We would also like to do a frequency seismic map on the moon so we could identify possible active seismic regions. The final hopeful objective is that we are able to find patterns of the moon's seismic activity to perhaps be able to roughly predict future moonquakes.
In the 3D map, we use “magnitude scale” to show all the detailed information. The height of the scale is the magnitude of the moonquake. Each circle describes the seismic intensity at each local point. There is an year tab at the left, so that users can choose which year set of data to show on the screen. There is also a nomenclature box, which shows the types of moonquake so that we can estimate the secondary impacts due to the moonquakes.
The benefit of our product is that first we are able to visualize the data and hopefully increase our understanding about moonquakes. Being able to identify areas prone to seismic activity would be very useful as we could avoid those areas for future lunar missions to increase the chances of success. Furthermore, with our product, we believe we could spark interest in the general public and be the gateway for them to explore and enjoy space and hopefully encourage people to be more interested and active in space.
Space Agency Data
We used information from Nasa to help identify locations of the Apollo landing which we could plot. From the same document we could also find data regarding the locations of ALSEP which we could use to more precisely understand and plot the data. Furthermore the link from Nasa to PDS: Bundle Info gave us more information in the nakamura. This allows us to understand and plot the data with more detail and are able to create magnitude scale for certain moonquakes. Furthermore we utilized CGI Moonkit in helping us create the layout of our 3D moon in ArcGIS. The cluster analysis of thermal icequakes was useful as we learned how to utilize ObsPy and learn how to filter out data. We also utilized USRA Houston Repository data and from there we were able to plot several points of the deep moonquake into our 3D Model.
Hackathon Journey
Our space Apps experience was very enriching, we learned to work as a team, we learned data analytics, project management, ArcGIS mapping, and how to pitch an idea. We got the opportunity to do the challenge at NIAR which was fantastic, as we were able to have mentor advice from different expertise areas and learn from them and do networking as well.
We are international students coming from Japan, Mexico and Malaysia, the first two countries are high seismic areas, therefore that led us to choosing this challenge. Earthquakes cause several consequences such as death, injuries, and material loss. Therefore we think the challenge "Make a Moonquake Map" is of human concern.
The approach for developing this project was to do an attractive visualization mapping so it would be interesting for the public to interact with, therefore we decided on doing a 3D map interface with ArcGIS. We had a lot of trouble finding a dataset suitable for what our goal was so we were trying a lot of different stuff until we found what we were looking for. This is the project’s general flow:
- Brainstorm for website development:
Prediction
History
Type: Research
- Split in to teams
- Research data and resources
- General meeting for including this years theme
- Spirit tour break
- Obspy/Python coding, moonquakes research, forecast methods research
- New approach to ArcGIS, research on the new approach software, dataset research
- Design of the interface
- Presentation development
- Presentation practice
- Final presentation
We would like to thank NIAR ATLAS, specially Waruna Seneviratne and his team for being so supportive to all of us, and the commodities they provided for doing this challenge like food, ergonomic spaces, technology, and mentorship.
References
https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/2020/10/28/lunar-living-nasas-artemis-base-camp-concept/
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/2366/earths-moon-3d-model/
Tags
#Apollo, #Artemis, #Moonquake, #3D Moon, #Luna, #Lunastronauts