Dirty Bits

Kuching | On the Way to the Sun

Awards & Nominations

Dirty Bits has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!

Global Finalist

Mission to the Star

High-Level Project Summary

Mission to the Star is a gamified learning website that will help kids from 7 to 14 years old learn about Parker’s mission to the Sun. A single-player concept in which the player will be assigned the responsibility of being a Parker Solar Probe. Then, the player will be informed of its final destination, which is to reach the Sun's atmosphere. The player will meet other spacecraft, planets, and satellites in Solar System as it travels to its final destination. We offer mini-trivia, quizzes, badges, and certificates so players will have fun learning. Mission to the Star is crucial because it offers a realistic experience that will spark children's interest in science and space exploration.

What exactly does it do?

Mission to the Star is a gamified learning website that will help kids from 7 to 14 years old learn about Parker’s mission to the Sun.

Mission to the Stars! How does it work?

The game begins with a brief overview of the Parker Solar Probe's journey and the importance of its mission to the Sun. The player will be able to view information about the Parker Solar Probe, such as (e.g., its brief history, the design of its heat shield, its records as the fastest-human-made object, and gravity assists), for players to consider before embarking on Parker's journey. We keep it brief and simple so that players can get the most out of it. A brief introduction is necessary before the player dives deep into the game's world, characters, and mechanics.

What?! An Alien? Quizzes and trivia?

Following a brief overview, the player will be assigned to the Parker Solar Probe. The player will take off from Earth and will be able to see aliens at the bottom left. This alien, named Kalan, will assist players in learning about space-related trivia and Parker's quizzes. In our project, we educate kids not only about Parker's journey but also about other related space exploration history. For quizzes, we will primarily focus on the Parker Solar Probe mission, so all quizzes will be Parker-related. However, for trivia, we focused on non-Parker-related topics such as planets, spacecraft, or satellites that Parker will encounter on its way to the Sun. We included this trivia to spark children's interest in space. Trivia is crucial because the player is interested in learning not only about Parker but also about our space exploration history and missions.

OMG?! Badges?

If a player successfully passes a certain checkpoint/distance in this game, the alien Kalan will appear to inform them of their mission's progress and will award the player badges for their achievement. Then, while travelling as Parker, the player will answer quizzes and receive instant feedback on whether their answer is correct or incorrect. We are using a reward system to verify the player's small accomplishments in reaching a certain distance toward the Sun.

Mission Completed

Finally, upon completion of the mission to Star by reaching the Sun, the player will be awarded a certificate. Player will be able to view the results of their quizzes and the leaderboard of their performance as the Parker Solar Probe. The player can then see their ranking on the leaderboard. Also, player can keep their certificate as a reminder of their bravery in joining Parker's on its record-breaking journey to touch the Sun.

What benefits does it have?

Mission to the Star is crucial because it offers a realistic experience that will spark children's interest in science and space exploration.

What do you hope to achieve?

One of the most notable game elements that we provided is gamification learning, which is a trendy approach for 21st-century learners.

By utilising gamification learning, our players can enjoy the journey of Parker's mission while also learning it in a fun and engaging manner. We are mindful of those bigger game benchmarks, but starting small allows us to gradually build up to provide students with gamified learning experiences that are more extensive in the future.

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

We developed this prototype using Figma, some of the icons, gifs and images were obtained from Figma's plugin, www.freepik.com and https://lottiefiles.com/

Other additional resources:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15k_IjSuLbXFWhFwyLolFQU_GQwcH1ibW?usp=sharing

Space Agency Data

We used NASA data on the Parker Solar Probe information (e.g., instruments, the time it took to launch from Earth, historic journey as the first spacecraft and human-made object to ever "touch" the Sun, all the dangers and obstacles Parker encountered, space weather phenomena encountered by Parker on its journey, such as extreme temperature, dust, and solar storms, and how they can impact life on Earth and what lessons we could learn from its record-breaking journey). Data obtained from NASA provided us with valuable information about the Parker Solar Probe.

Our team used NASA’s data to create a gamified learning website where the player can experience Parker's journey. All of the information about (s) is based on information obtained from the NASA website. For example, consider the data provided by Traveling to the Sun: Why Won't Parker Solar Probe Melt (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/traveling-to-the-sun-why-won-t-parker-solar-probe-melt), which explains the science behind Parker's not melting while close to the Sun. We used that data in our quizzes section so that kids could learn about Parker’s strengths. The same can be said about the material on the heat shield used by Parker Probe, which uses carbon-composite foam sandwiched between two carbon plates to protect the spacecraft. In our project, we simplify the words so that children can better understand them.

We obtained NASA’s data about other space exploration journeys. In Depth | Helios 2, (https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/helios-2/in-depth/) for example. We obtained information about Helios 2, which is the second fastest object ever created by humans and has a mission similar to Parker's to study the Sun. We included Helios 2 information in our project’s trivia so that kids could learn about the history of spacecraft that were released into our Solar System.

These are only a few examples of NASA data that we used in our project. More NASA data can be found in our references. Thank you to NASA for the valuable information.

Hackathon Journey

It was challenging, but fun, hard yet inspiring. We were overwhelmed by the number of challengers that participated this year. Nonetheless, we are still motivated to take on this challenge just like the rest of the participants globally. The local organizers are very helpful in organizing the workshops, roadshows, games, and, what’s more, interesting prizes to be won by earning points in quizzes, attending workshops and roadshows! Not to forget the helpful and comprehensive guidelines provided by the NASA Space Apps team.

We hope that in the years ahead, this website, Mission to the Star will leave an impression and inspire more young and passionate students, particularly in Sarawak. The Solar Probe inspired us because humans can only dream of venturing into the unknown to be so close to the Sun. The universe is breathtakingly beautiful, and that alone makes studying space worthwhile because there are so many answers to be discovered, but our limited human lifespan will only allow us to see a tiny portion of what's out there.

The solar system is largely unexplored. Space exploration is more than just predicting what happens if two planets collide; it is also about tracing our beginnings and pushing the limits of our intelligence to achieve great things. We are glad that this hackathon is the start of bigger things in Sarawak. I hope that more young people, as well as everyone else, will discover the miracles of space.

References

DATA

Atmosphere | National Geographic Society. (2022). Nationalgeographic.org. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/atmosphere
Byju’s. (2017, September 7). Atmosphere - Definition, Layers of Atmosphere, Composition of Atmosphere, Video and FAQs. BYJU’S. https://byjus.com/physics/atmosphere/
Chu, J. (2013, November). The moon’s face doesn’t tell its whole story. MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. https://news.mit.edu/2013/moon%E2%80%99s-face-doesn%E2%80%99t-tell-its-whole-story
Delta IV Parker Solar Probe. (2018). Ulalaunch.com. https://www.ulalaunch.com/missions/archived-launched/delta-iv-parker-solar-probe
Dobrijevic, D., & Nola Taylor Tillman. (2022, May 6). Parker Solar Probe: First spacecraft to “touch” the sun. Space.com; Space. https://www.space.com/40437-parker-solar-probe.html
Earth’s Atmospheric Layers. (2014). NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/science/atmosphere-layers2.html
Earth’s Moon. (2022, July 27). NASA Solar System Exploration. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/earths-moon/overview/
Gallery: James Webb Space Telescope. (2021). Nasa.gov. https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/Gallery/JWST.html
Garner, R. (2018, July 19). Traveling to the Sun: Why Won’t Parker Solar Probe Melt? NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/traveling-to-the-sun-why-won-t-parker-solar-probe-melt
Helios 2. (2014). Nasa.gov. https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/toolbox/missions/helios2.html
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Mack, E. (2017, May 31). NASA spacecraft getting set to “touch” the sun. CNET; CNET. https://www.cnet.com/science/nasa-parker-solar-probe-plus-sun-eugene-chicago/
Mack, E., & Trenholm, R. (2018, August 12). NASA Parker Solar Probe launches on historic mission to high-five the sun. CNET; CNET. https://www.cnet.com/science/nasa-parker-solar-probe-launches-sunday-on-mission-to-touch-the-sun/
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NASA Enters the Solar Atmosphere for the First Time. (2019). NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/nasa-enters-the-solar-atmosphere-for-the-first-time-bringing-new-discoveries
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RESOURCES

To develop our prototype, most icons, gifs and images were obtained from Figma's plugin, www.freepik.com and https://lottiefiles.com/