High-Level Project Summary
Our challenge was to create a way that fits the generations standards and identify "Parker's Solar Probe". Our solution is a computer game that simulates the mission. We initiate our game with the player coming to choose the materials that will help manufacturing the probe. Then, the player will be able to acknowledge the concept of "Gravity Assist" and drive the Parker’s Solar Probe to the Sun. Finally reaching the final level which is the closest to the sun, the probe will have to pass three dangers: Solar Winds, Magnetic Fields, and the Switchbacks.After each phase an explanation of the danger will be described, and the player will get all the needed knowledge from from Nasa resources.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
The benefits of the solution? What do you hope?
Our benefits and aim were to tell the story of Parker Solar Probe in an interactive and an educational way that can help the young people to learn about its journey. This was achieved by using the Computer Vision technique in our Video Game, which adds more joy and challenge regarding the gameplay element in the story. The user of the game was able to imagine himself as the project leader of Parker Solar Probe mission, and to learn about the challenges it overcame through different levels in the game. In the first level “Engineering and Materials”, we attracted the attention of the user to start guessing what element could be used to create the Cup, Shield, and the wires used in the Solar Probe. Then making the player test the movement of the Probe with his hand, and to see whether his material choice was right or wrong which makes the probe collapses with firing the user from his position. In the second level “Gravity Assist”, the fun element becomes more entertaining to the player, while he also learns about the real physics behind the motion in our solar system. After learning the concept of Gravity Assist and how it works, we give the user the option to choose between 3 orbits to lunch our solar probe through it. After making his choice, he starts the challenge of overcoming the asteroids in the space by using his hand to move the solar probe. If the asteroids hit the probe, its health bar decreases until the player loses or wins. The final level “Touching the Sun” is all about learning closely about the challenges the probe encountered as getting closer to the sun. In another way of fun, the user was able to use his hand to move the probe and to fire against the “dangers” regarding approaching the sun. These dangers were introduced one after another as the user is continuing the game story. They were mainly 3 dangerous challenges, the Solar Wind, the Sun’s Magnetic Field, and Solar Switch Backs. Eventually, the user see that he completed his mission and that his probe finally touched the sun!
After the game experience, we hope that the young audience was able to absorb the scientific information in the journey, with having the entertainment and challenging aspects of passing the levels.
What does your challenge do?
Our task was to come up with a novel approach that adheres to the expectations of the current age and aids the youth in recognizing one of the most significant missions carried out in the annals of space exploration. Our primary solution is a video game, the first level of our game is "The Engineering level." Here, the player has the opportunity to select the primary components that will aid in the construction of the probe and guard against damage during its voyage to the Sun. The player is then presented with a full breakdown of the benefits and drawbacks of each option, as well as what enabled him to advance through the level or prevented him from doing so. One of the most crucial ideas for space missions is "The Gravity Assist," Level 2, which the player will learn about after successfully completing the first engineering level. The player will get to choose from three large planets in this stage, which are undoubtedly the best planets for assisting with gravity. When the player is finished making their selection, an explanation of "Gravity Assist" will show up to him. He will then be able to understand the term and identify the planet that caused the Parker Solar Probe to travel toward the Sun. attaining Level 3, "Touching the Sun," the last and closest level to the sun. This level mostly details the risks and perils the Solar Probe encountered when passing into the Sun's outermost atmosphere, the Corona. Three significant threats must be overcome by the probe: the switchbacks, magnetic fields, and solar winds. The hazard will be explained after each stage, and the gamer will learn everything they need to know from reliable websites using NASA resources.
Coding, software, hardware:
We used two types of tools to create the project we were working on: hardware and software. Initially, software We initially required proficiency in the Python programming language, which is frequently used to create software and websites, automate processes, and perform data analysis. Python is a general-purpose language, which means it may be used to make many various types of applications and isn't tailored for any particular issues. We chose it because it has a straightforward syntax and is not overly complex, putting more focus on plain language than any other computer language now in use. Python is one of the easiest programming languages to learn and use, making it possible to write and execute scripts quickly compared to other programming languages.
Second, to run the code we produced, we used PyCharm as our compiler. PyCharm is a specialized Python Integrated Development Environment (IDE), offering a wide range of crucial tools for Python developers, tightly integrated to make a convenient environment for productive Python.
Third, we started importing Python libraries that were useful for our project. the definition of a library first? A group of connected Functions is referred to as a Python library. It has collections of code that can be utilized repeatedly in many programs. For the programmer, it simplifies and makes Python programming more practical.
Pygame, a collection of Python functions made for building video games quickly, is the first library we utilized in our project. It includes libraries for computer graphics and sound that are made specifically for use with the Python programming language. Since our project is a game that simulates the journey of the Solar Parker Probe to the Sun, Pygame is the primary dependency of our project.
The second package we employed was OpenCV, a Python-compatible open-source computer vision and machine learning software library. Therefore, we will employ OpenCV to find the hand that will serve as the game's controller.
The third and final library we used was mediapipe, which is an open-source framework from Google for creating multimodal content like audio and video. We connected this library to pygame and OpenCV to process the video that was being streamed live from our camera and use the hand as a controller.
Second, Hardware: In order to run the code and see the game function, we need some sort of hardware. Our hardware for running the code in the compiler was our lab computers.
Space Agency Data
We created a game that gives the young players access to knowledge that is direct and useful for the general audience. We used NASA.gov to search for the articles published on the Parker’s Solar Probe and the main remarkable events of the mission. The videos in NASA.gov helped us visualize the mission and add the most important details to our solution. Nasa resources also helped us identify one main concept in space travelling whish is the gravity assist. Nasa was a great open source that we accessed easily.
Hackathon Journey
First and foremost, our constant desire to learn something new is what drove us to accept this challenge. To that end, we created numerous projects that incorporated cutting-edge concepts. We were immediately inspired when we saw the challenge since we enjoy learning new things and coming up with creative ways to share them.
We decided to take a creative approach to developing this project because we knew that every team would consider the first thing will pop in our mind till someone mentioned a game and we wanted to improve our python skills. In order to start creating the game, our challenge first is to get better at Python and then learn about the challenge itself, which was on the way to the sun.
We started off the hackathon by splitting up into two teams, one of which would create a website and edit videos, and the other would create a game with three stages. So, we face two different types of issues: First, the actual issue that the Solar Parker Probe had to deal with, such as the materials that the NASA team selected, how to get to the Sun quickly, etc. However, we overcome these issues by doing in-depth searches on NASA websites and YouTube videos, which allowed us to have a thorough grasp of the challenges the Solar Parker Probe encountered.
The coding team only had three members, so we attempted to support one another when we were writing, and if one got discouraged, we started to encourage him to write back. As a result, we were able to tackle our code challenges since three people had three distinct ideas about how to approach them.
Finally, how would we sum up our experience using the space app and what did we learn? I am aware about hackathons. Hearing about how other people learned a subject from scratch and implemented it successfully and on time made me laugh. I began to question whether I would ever be able to do it again. And the majority of the seniors continued remarking that the hackathon was the best thing to occur. We took a lot away from it. Never pass up the chance to take part in a hackathon. Our experience wasn’t different from the seniors told us.
References
We used many references to help us in our project :
First : Introduction :
- https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/nasa-enters-the-solar-atmosphere-for-the-first-time-bringing-new-discoveries
- https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/sun/parker-solar-probe-captures-its-first-images-of-venus-surface-in-visible-light-confirmed/
- https://youtu.be/pOZhPz92Dic
Second : Materials and Engineering :
- https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/traveling-to-the-sun-why-won-t-parker-solar-probe-melt
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN6rZF5dSRg
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKinVmBoIrE
Third : Gravity Assist :
- https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/basics/primer/
- https://youtu.be/y91nNh0ZG9M
- https://youtu.be/MvKvX-niMLA
Fourth : Near to the sun :
- https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/nasas-parker-solar-probe-sheds-new-light-on-the-sun
- https://www.nasa.gov/aurora
Fifth : Softwares:
- https://www.pygame.org/
- https://google.github.io/mediapipe/
- https://opencv.org/
Tags
#Pygame #Mediapipe #OpenCV #Parker_Solar_probe #Sun #Python #Solar_Wind #Switchback #Solar_Dust