High-Level Project Summary
Sun Touch is a website that will help anyone, even children, learn about the Parker solar probe mission. There are videos, quizzes, stories, and comic strips about the mission on the website. Sun Touch is important because it provides a realistic experience that will arouse people's interest in studying astronomy, especially children. On April 28, 2021, the Parker solar probe was the first human object to touch the sun, and it made great discoveries. Unfortunately, many people of all ages don’t know about it. That’s why we took this challenge to become the connection between scientists and everyone else.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
SUNTOUCH! What exactly does it do? How does it work?
First, SUN TOUCH lets the user choose the way he wants to learn from. There are scientific details, comic strips, videos, and quizzes. 
The first part is a comic strip showing the mission of Parker Solar Probe in a simple way for children. The story tells the reader about the challenges NASA faced and how it overcame them. The high temperature was such a challenge and how long it took to find the perfect material and make the protective shield. After reading the story, we provide some quizzes to test the learning outcomes of the story and make sure that the reader understands the main idea.
The second part is a page that provides all the scientific data in detail. This page is meant to present more certified information for any reader. On this page, we show the challenges that faced NASA and the steps that were taken to find the perfect solution, like the challenge of temperature and energy. Another important topic is the rotation around Venus. This rotation has the main role in completing the mission successfully. When Parker's solar probe enters the gravity field, it gives them the push to reach the corona.
We have a dedicated page for the best educational videos that describe scientific data in an easy manner that could be understood by any age group, as well as custom professionally made videos. we made a documentary for the mission from the planning to the moment of the touching. In addition, there is a feedback video from children giving their reactions after reading the story. In the future, there will be more animated videos.
All that was possible thanks to multiple advanced technologies, The website was created using ReactJS front-end framework offering a smooth and interactive interface with it, languages used were mainly JavaScript, SCSS & HTML, and for easy hosting and deployment, the whole application is containerized using Docker. The professionally made custom videos utilized Davinci Resolve 18, a Hollywood-grade professional & advanced video editing solution. For our custom 3D images & Animations, Blender 3D was used.
Space Agency Data
For our project Nasa's website and videos were lifesavers. Taking the detailed information about parker from the agency that is responsible for it was really useful. We also used 3d from Nasa open source as well as other free open sources.
Hackathon Journey
Our experience at NASA space apps hackathon in Cairo was really cool and helpful. We learned a lot about the challenges that Parker's solar probe faced and how NASA overcame them. What inspired us to choose this challenge the most was the impact we saw on children, which is exactly what we want to generate in these new generations to rebuild their passion. We took the approach of learning as simple as possible, and we created a comic strip that will be entertaining and, most importantly, informative for children. We tackled every challenge as a group. We never worked alone on a specific task because by helping each other we could make things better and faster. The mentors helped us a lot to follow the rules and improve our solutions. Therefore, we would like to thank them.
References
Our solution is not easy. It requires the usage of multiple complex technologies, which are, for example, a dedicated Linux server that hosts the website and any interactive events; a front-end programming technology like ReactJS that is used to program the website, which already needs a wide set of programming languages like Java Script, CSS, and HTML; a professional video editing solution to make crystal clear videos like DaVinci Resolve; and a 3D software to create stunning 3D animations and visualizations, of which our selection was Blender.
” National Aeronautics and Space Administration, www.nasa.gov.
“Solar Orbiter - The Sun Today with Dr. C. Alex Young.” The Sun Today with Dr. C. Alex Young, 19 Dec. 2021, www.thesuntoday.org/missions/solar-orbiter.
“Parker Solar Probe.” Parker Solar Probe, 7 Sept. 2022, parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu.
“Mission Midpoint: Parker Solar Probe Makes 12th Encounter with Sun | Hub.” The Hub, 31 May 2022, hub.jhu.edu/2022/05/31/parker-solar-probe-halfway-finished-mission.
Driesman, A., Ercol, J., Gaddy, E., & Gerger, A. (2021, July 29). How the parker solar probe survives close encounters with the sun. IEEE Spectrum. Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://spectrum.ieee.org/how-the-parker-solar-probe-survives-close-encounters-with-the-sun
Summary
Case, A. W., Kasper, J. C., Stevens, M. L., Korreck, K. E., Paulson, K., Daigneau, P., ... & Martinović, M. M. (2020). The solar probe cup on the Parker Solar Probe. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 246(2), 43.
Zank, G. P., Zhao, L. L., Adhikari, L., Telloni, D., Kasper, J. C., & Bale, S. D. (2021). Turbulence transport in the solar corona: Theory, modeling, and Parker Solar Probe. Physics of Plasmas, 28(8), 080501.
Buckley, M. (2022, May 31). Mission midpoint: Parker Solar Probe makes 12th encounter with sun. The Hub. Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://hub.jhu.edu/2022/05/31/parker-solar-probe-halfway-finished-mission/
Parker Solar Probe. Parker Solar Probe | Center for Astrophysics. (n.d.). Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/facilities-technology/telescopes-instruments/parker-solar-probe
Tags
#Sun Touch , #Parker Solar Probe