The Hacktivists

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16WUEAJ3gVVyNH5AxDH2iPh4UGUK6UhE8/view?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hFqU51HEIcxsxaCkGLRNvr8D7lcY-rEw/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=111417966870245871809&rtpof=true&sd=true

सूर्यात्रा : A Quest to the Phoebus is an interactive animated story that will inspire and inform young audiences with the same desire, about the remarkable journey of the Parker Solar Probe from Earth to the Sun, overcoming many challenges along the way, to becoming the first ever spacecraft to "Touch the Sun". The product would help the new generations become more interested in Solar science from a young age and why not become a scientist for a future Solar mission. We really hope you enjoy it!

The following is the transcript of the animated story that we have developed. One of the most important features of the project is that it offers various engaging background music throughtout.

Part - I

In the wintry month of November, Prof. Matthew with the project file under his arm was standing outside the meeting room of National Aeronautics and Space Administration ready to present his idea in front of the scientists and funders to approve financial aid for his mission. While going inside the room, he felt a chill down his spine in nervousness. He pitched the project and was humiliated by his seniors who rejected his project saying that it had many flaws and the project was illogical because going in that vicinity of the sun is not possible. Disheartened by the humiliation and troll he faced; he went home. While searching through his home library he stumbled upon a book named “Too Close to the sun”. Taking out the book, he sat in front of the fireplace, with a mug of eggnog in his hand and started reading the book.  

Eons ago, the Greek inventor Daedalus who was trapped inside the Labyrinth he created for King Minos, in an attempt to escape from Crete, fashioned wings out of wax and feathers. Daedalus was a big believer of Helios, the Sun God. Icarus, his son, however was an atheist and didn’t believe the sun god had anything to do with their attempt to escape so he decided to belittle Helios. He wanted to fly up to the Sun and show the world that Man’s ability to getting close to the sun is highly underrated. When his father understood his intention, he warned his son, “Don’t fly that close to the sun, or your wings will melt and you will die.” Icarus not listening to his father, and engulfed in his pride, took off towards the sun. When he was crossing the Earth’s atmosphere, it was quite alright. As he flew closer to sun, headed straight to it, his wings started melting and it melted when he reached too close, just like his father told him, the sun’s solar radiation melted his wings and Icarus got incinerated.  

Reading the story of Icarus, Prof. Matthew found new hope and enthusiasm. After a lot of persuasions, his project was finally sanctioned for funding. Thus began the mission to achieve what was thought to be unachievable but became one of the greatest feat mankind has ever achieved, a mission to touch the Sun. 

Part - II

The Sun, the closest star to Earth, sits at the core of our solar system. For habitation, Earth is just the proper distance from the Sun. The Earth's upper atmosphere absorbs the majority of the Sun's most dangerous rays, preventing them from reaching the ground. The auxiliary energy breaks atoms into charged particles, creating the electrifying ionosphere. Due to the Sun's dazzling solar surface, the corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun, is ordinarily invisible, but during an eclipse, the corona appears, providing special scientific opportunities. More than 20 space projects are now underway, aiding NASA in its understanding of the interactions between Earth and the Sun. Of those missions, the Parker Solar Probe is the most fascinating. To investigate what we might discover about our star from within the solar system, it was dispatched to the Sun. 

But how close to the Sun will it actually get? During its final flyby, it will approach the sun's surface as closely as 3.8 million miles. Parker Solar Probe will be travelling at a speed of roughly 430, 000 miles per hour, which is fast enough to get from Earth to the Moon in about 32 minutes, if you envision the distance between Earth and the Sun as a football field. Parker Solar Probe will be on the five-yard line when this occurs. The magnetic field lines of the Earth break and realign during magnetic reconnection, scattering neighboring charged particles. The magnetic fields of the Sun and Earth become entangled when the solar wind pushes against the magnetosphere, which surrounds and shields the planet. The magnetic reconnection causes this tremendous explosion. 

While we can’t see magnetic reconnection with our bare eyes, we can see its effects. Occasionally some of the perturbed particles pour into Earth’s upper atmosphere, where they spark the auroras. The brilliant lights visible at Earth's north and south poles are known as auroras. When solar particles contact with the magnetic field of Earth, auroras result. The aurora's multicolored lights are the result of this interaction. We can answer some questions about the Sun from 93 million miles away on Earth, but to learn more, we knew we’d have to venture to our nearest star. The mission's main scientific objectives are to follow the flow of heat and energy through the solar corona. The probe will also investigate how the solar wind and solar energetic particles are accelerated. It is intended to provide solutions to some of the largest Sun-related questions. Flying close to the Sun is risky business (just ask Icarus). To fly towards the birthplace of the highest energy solar particles, and in order to investigate how quickly the solar wind transitions from subsonic to supersonic, Parker will fly close enough to the Sun. Even at temperatures of up to 2500° F, it won't melt, because of the modern engineering marvel. 

Of course, temperatures of the thousands of degrees Fahrenheit are still extremely hot. Parker Solar Probe uses a heat barrier called the Thermal Protection System, or TPS, which is 8 feet in diameter and 4.5 inches thick, to withstand that heat. The spaceship body will be at a pleasant 85° F just on the opposite side of the shield thanks to those few inches of protection. The TPS, which has been tested to endure temperatures of up to 3000° F, can survive any heat the Sun can provide, protecting practically all instrumentation. After taking off, the Parker Solar Probe will locate the Sun, turn its thermal shield to face it, and then continue travelling for the next three months, soaking up the Sun's heat and shielding itself from the icy emptiness of space. 

Part - III

Now we embark on the adventurous voyage from the Earth to the Sun. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know space is weird. But just how weird might surprise you.  

If you look attentively, you can see that the void between the planets is filled with plasma, magnetic fields, dust, and other small particles. We normally don't sense the invisible electromagnetic forces that control space. Additionally, it has a peculiar condition of matter that is uncommon for humans to encounter on Earth. The Probe is currently travelling through interplanetary space, equipped to handle any challenges that may arise as we travel through this enigmatic and exciting substance. Just as dust gathers in corners and along bookshelves in our homes, dust piles up in interplanetary space, too. Although dust is spread across the solar system, it concentrates in the rings that surround Venus and Earth. Scientists are examining this dust in an effort to learn more about the formation of planets and the elements that make up our solar system. 

Lagrange Point 1, or L1, the first stop in space on our solar voyage! This is a special place between Earth and the Sun where their gravitational forces are balanced. It’s a great spot for spacecraft because they’ll stay put between the two objects and orbit with Earth, no fuel required. 

Venus is the next stop for us. Both rocky, identical twins of Earth and Venus share characteristics such as size and shape. Scientists can better comprehend Venus' hostile characteristics, how Venus became hell, and how this will affect Earth's future by studying Venus. However, because Venus is closer to the Sun than Earth, previous missions there have only been able to last a few hours. In its quest to better understand the Sun, NASA's Parker Solar Probe passes Venus on its way to our star. Parker discovered that during the Sun's 11-year activity cycle, the upper atmosphere of Venus experiences unexpected changes. The inner solar system can be seen in unexpected and interesting ways when passing by Venus. 

As we move past Venus nearer the Sun, we experience Solar wind. Ah, the solar wind – that steady stream of particles escaping from the Corona and gushing out into the space. There’s weather in space – but we’re not talking rain or snow. The solar wind can trigger magnetic storms with dangerous effects on astronauts, satellites and even our power grid. 

We’re nearing the end of our solar tour, which means we’re getting closer to the star of the show! We sent Parker Solar Probe to the Sun to investigate some of our star’s biggest mysteries. The closer we get, the more discoveries we make. One of the big questions we hope to answer with Parker Solar Probe is the coronal heating problem: the mystery of why the Sun’s atmosphere is much, much hotter than the surface below – just the opposite of what we would expect. 

We’ve touched the Sun! On April 28, 2021, during Parker’s 8th orbit around the Sun, the spacecraft was around 20 solar radii or 8 million miles from the Sun’s surface when it crossed into the Corona. The boundary that marks the edge of Solar atmosphere is called the Alfvén Critical surface. Scientists didn’t exactly know where this boundary was, but for the first time in history a spacecraft has crossed it. Parker Solar Probe has ventured into the Corona. 

Parker Solar Probe used a special device known as a Faraday cup to collect some plasma as it passed through the solar atmosphere. Parker is discovering fresh discoveries as it travels closer to the solar surface, including from inside the solar wind, the flow of solar-generated particles that can have an impact on us here on Earth. The spacecraft will orbit our star 24 times over its seven-year projected mission period. It will gather solar wind samples, examine the Sun's corona, and offer hitherto unseen close-up views of our star on each close pass. It is circling the Sun in the last uncharted part of space, where every observation could lead to a new discovery. 

As the probe gradually reached the corona of the sun, Icarus’ soul, watching it from far away, smiled and said, “You reached closer to the sun, than I did. Finally, mankind’s ability to touch the sun will not be underestimated.” 

What tools or software we used to develop our project?

We developed this prototype using Adobe Premiere Pro, some of the icons and images were designed by us using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop, and other icons were taken from www.freepik.com and www.flaticon.com. The background music was designed using FL Studio.

What do we hope to achieve?

We hope that the animation generates impact, that children find it entertaining and that they take advantage of the information they can learn from it. We propose an interactive animation with engaing background music where they can become more interested in solar science from a young age, and why not, be the next Heliophysicist.

What are its benefits?

The benefits that our project offers are that children have fun by learning through animations and stories, where they can even interact while they learn. To make the experience more engaging we have variations of background music amplifying the impact of the story in the mind of the audience.

What are the future endeavours?

We also identified that many of them have more fun learning if it has gaming elements in it, so the gaming component seemed a fundamental aspect to help us get their interest.

We have utilized video and image assets from NASA Goddard and other NASA websites for this project. We have also utilised them for developing the plot of our animated story.

• https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkaLfbuB_6E
• https://youtu.be/CaB3gaah1Dg
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBudjihQKsw
• https://youtu.be/AWgq2tVZ-5M
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOng5WlS4D0

Our experience in Space Apps Challenge 2022 was really awesome. We learned a lot about the Parker Solar Probe mission, the challenges that it encountered while travelling from Earth to Sun, how the scientists and engineers devised a technique to address the heating issues that the Parker Probe would face once it enters the Solar Corona. What most inspired us to choose this challenge was the impact we saw it would have on children, and we felt that if we had got a cool and interactive animation story as children, we would have been more curious about these important topics, and it is exactly what we want to generate in these new generations. The approach we used was learn by storytelling and playing, we prototyped a animated story with game simulations that will be fun and most important, informative for kids. 

Our team was an eclectic ensemble and except for a few none had any experience in graphics and animation design. But we buckled up, stuck together as a team and worked with high spirit for we always had in mind that whether we win or not we shall atleast be an inspiration to those who think that to do something we need to be experts and lose the opportunity to learn and connect.

Every challenge we got, we faced it as a team. We never worked alone on a specific task, because by helping each other we could make things better and faster. While researching for the story, we got immensely inspired by Icarus' will to push the normal limits which movtivated us throughout the project.

Finally, we would like to make a special gratitude to Rupam Mondal, who created many assets that were of much help for us in the prototype of this animation.

The following are the openly available resources that we have used in our animation as video and image assets:

• https://youtu.be/3s2QPQnuaGk
• https://www.istockphoto.com/video/solar-system-gm467854132-61451572
• https://makeagif.com/i/AkeKBH
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJfy8acFaOg

#ParkerProbe #Sun #art #spaceexploration #beginner #animatedstory