Ad Astra

Parker's Journey

High-Level Project Summary

We created an interactive game that helps young audiences learn by doing. You will be NASA’s engineer responsible for designing Parker solar probe and will have to choose the best components and materials between various options. The game will teach children and teenagers how Parker was built and its importance in our understanding of the Sun, as well as other concepts like solar winds and auroras in a funny and entertaining way.

Link to Final Project

https://github.com/LucasG-ak/nasaApp

Link to Project "Demo"

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z7W2tFX_qc_qpXe4pAl9ggC1U-lVtmfX/view

Detailed Project Description

It's an interactive game which allows the player, a recently hired NASA engineer, to design the Parker Solar Probe. Options are displayed and, if the player chooses the incorrect answer, an explanation is shown as to why it might not be the best choice. It features images and small videos to graphically support the learning of its concepts. Our project, Parker’s Journey, will help children and teenagers interested in space and in science learn about the amazing engineering features of the probe, as well as why it is so important to our understanding of the Sun. It will also feature related concepts like solar winds, solar storms, auroras, Parker’s launch site, gravitational assists in Venus and the Sun's atmosphere.

Space Agency Data

We used data from NASA’s resources tab in the “On The Way to the Sun” challenge, as well as NASA’s Youtube channels. From ScienceAtNASA, we researched about solar winds and their effects; from NASA Goddard, we collected general information about Parker Space Probe, like speed and distance from the Sun. From NASA’s blog, we learned about Aurora and space weather. All these facts, especially the counterintuitive ones like Corona’s temperature being higher than the Sun’s surface, inspired us to make a choice based app for young audiences to learn more about it and foment their curiosity.

Hackathon Journey

It was a rollercoaster of new ideas, emotions and work. We learned various facts about the Sun and Parker Space Probe, like solar winds and dust, gravitational assists and the Corona. We chose this challenge because we discovered our love for science in adulthood since most available resources were too complex and intimidating to enjoy during our early years. We want to develop this excitement of discovery in children and early teenagers by allowing them to learn from their choices in a user-friendly and interactive environment. We split the team between coders and storytellers. We worked together to iteratively create an application telling the story of the Parker Space Probe from the perspective of an engineer tasked with designing it. We first used design-thinking methods to explore new ideas and then pick the best for each story chapter. We thank Universidade de Campinas and Marco Linhares for supporting our project and guiding us through many questions.