MARK II

https://nasaapp.manish60.com.np/

https://youtu.be/9KA_uty_np8

Adventures in Titan: what exactly does it do? How does it work?

Inspired by Mary Shelley's masterpiece, Frankenstein, we were determined to write a similar storybook for kids in Nepal. We also wanted to make it digital since not all the kids in rural villages could buy hard copy prints and reaching out to them was impractical too. So, by combining the elements of handmade arts, storytelling, scientific research, and coding, we created this web platform featuring a cosmic tale & functioning on basic mouse clicks.

Home Page

After users type the web address on their search bar, they are directed to the home screen of our "Adventures in Titan-land" platform which features two interactive buttons and a motion particle background along with some texts.

Story Page

If the user clicks on the first button titled with story initiation text, the user is directed to the focus point of our website i.e. the flipping e-book page. The e-book automatically opens to its front page and it they want to view the front hard cover then they can turn it back too. The turning mechanism is extremely simple :

To turn the page to the Right: Use the right arrow on the keyboard or mouse swipe on the right page. The mouse swipe needs to be placed on the top right corner or bottom right corner.

To turn the page to the Left: Use the left arrow on the keyboard or mouse swipe on the left page. The mouse swipe needs to be placed on the top left corner or bottom left corner.

Prologue/Status Quo: The Titan

During the first pages of the book, the main character older Tim finds himself in a helpless situation on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. His special lab synthesized creature is dead and he has lost all hope. He must find a way back home but his circumstances imply something else.

Status Quo Change: The Pyramid

However, something remarkable happens. Tim sees a tall pyramid somewhere far away in Titan. Even if his energy is minimum, he walks toward that pyramid to seek out help and survive. He enters inside a door.

Turning point: The Dream

In a brief moment, Tim as a child ascertains that it was just a dream and feels terrified. He becomes curious about that special creature that he visualizes in his dream. He feels motivated to create a such special creature and becomes interested in astrobiology.

Raising the stakes: The Garden

He realizes the possibility of creating such a creature and starts researching a lot. One day, while sitting in his house and looking into the meadow, he thinks about several organisms and their key specialties for space missions.

The final act: The Achievement

Several years later, due to his passion for space biology, Tim is recruited by NASA. He also receives awards for creating a new life by combining others. He wants to test that life form in space and goes on to an exo-planet mission.

Outcome: The Crash

However, the spaceship crashes in a similar way just like in his dream and the reader is left with a question, "Recurring dream or time loop paradox?"

What benefits does it have?

Our platform will help the kids to be aware of an art form called oil painting. It would help develop reading habits in kids from an early age. It would inspire them to write their own creative stories and develop a passion for scientific journalism. It would provide them with knowledge about space stresses and incite them towards scientific research. It also makes them excited about biological species by deviating from monotonous rote learning and focusing on exciting storytelling.

What do you hope to achieve?

With not even a single space agency in our country, we hope that initiatives such as this would motivate thousands of kids towards STEM education. The rational way of learning would be promoted and superstitious beliefs shall be debunked. We hope that such platforms would make learning astronomy more engaging and that the potential of comic books in the space sector won't be overlooked. So far, there hasn't been even a single eBook intended for Nepali kids. So, besides being the first Nepali e-storybook it would also aid in the promotion of local arts such as mandala arts, and Mithila arts of Nepal.

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

Languages and scripts used to create the platform:

a. HTML & CSS : General web structure

b. JavaScript (JS): Interactive

Under JavaScript (JS);

c. particles.js: for designing background animations and particles.

d. turn.js: for creating the book turning effect

Oil painting images and Brown paper cover: Generated using ML/AI algorithms and modified as per need.

Book hardcover(3D effect): JS and CSS.

Fonts used: Poppins, Lato, and Josefin Sans

Adobe Illustrator: Icon Generation

GitHub Link: https://github.com/manishacharya60/NASA-Space-App

Although our project was related more with narration and less with datasets (facts), we used the provided resources to confirm our story telling and make it realistic.

For an extensive research on the environmental stresses and its impact on our space character Tim, we utilized the NASA Human Research Road-map library (https://humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov/risks/). The initial inspiration for learning the challenges and hazards of space flight was provided by the article (https://www.nasa.gov/hrp/5-hazards-of-human-spaceflight).

Under the Risk Rating and Dispositions domain of NASA HRR, we analyzed the effect of radiation carcinogenesis and the prolonged exposure of rays. Focusing on the element of Human Health Countermeasures (HHC), we considered our character illness due to inadequate food and nutrition. While the factor of Circadian Desynchronization was evaluated under the element of Human Factors and Behavioral Performance (HFBP). Likelihood and Consequence Ratings were primarily sought out for.

The NASA Gene-lab Data Repository Search was vital for us to know how life forms dealt with space stresses. For example using the Microbial Tracking-2 experiment study [1] we got to know about the draft genomes of fungi isolated from ISS. Although we weren't able to find the datasets related to hemp and exoelectrogens, the weblink proved to be handy for us.

[1] Simpson A, Urbaniak C, Singh NK, Bateh J, Wood JM, Debieu M, O'Hara NB, Houbraken J, Mason CE, Venkateswaran K "International Space Station Microbial Observatory of Pathogenic Virus Bacteria and Fungi Project (ISS_MOP)", GeneLab, Version 2, http://doi.org/10.26030/ch2t-8b03

We also used the (Canadian Space Agency) CSA report on Deep Space Healthcare that adressed the biomedical needs of deep space missions. Although we didn't adopt the differentiation of various deep-space medical conditions, the table provided by Barratt, Pool and Watkins was intuituive to our context of character who needed medical assistance.

Being a landlocked and developing nation, Nepal is struggling to have its launchpad and exploration on a space mission. Firstly, the launchpad is built closer to the sea, despite not having those perks, Nepal has thousands of flora and fauna making us directly closer to organisms. With the problem of electricity fluctuations, watching the sky at night was our favorite daily routine. Honestly, this interlink has brought us to choose this challenge in the Hackathon. Having problems with fewer resources available, poor network connection, and less qualified intellectuals were big setbacks faced in our Hackathon’s journey, but with persistence, self-learning, and coordination, we were successful to create our project. The journey felt like “we were on the edge of our seat”, keeping us very excited to learn various things about space, various organisms, and importantly “How difficult space mission is?”. With Curiosity and NASA's mission to Mars, our team members always thought of being an astronaut, to fulfill our avidity, we created a fictional character “Tim” exploring space, who also has affection for organisms’ experiments in space. Being less privileged in the field of space science and biology, we were grateful for those valuable assets and resources provided by the NASA Space Challenge website which helped us to learn more and most importantly creating our project impactful.

Citations:

[1] Copper, Maya; Douglas, Grace; Perchonok, Michele (1 March 2011). "Developing the NASA Food System for Long-Duration Missions". Journal of Food Science. DOI: 10.1111/j.1750-3841.2010.01982.x

[2] Ho, L., Zulkifli, N. A., & Tan, T. (2020). Edible Mushroom: Nutritional Properties, Potential Nutraceutical Values, and Its Utilization in Food Product Development. In A. K. Passari, & S. Sánchez (Eds.), An Introduction to Mushroom. Intech Open. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91827

[3] Rupasinghe HPV, Davis A, Kumar SK, Murray B, Zheljazkov VD. Industrial Hemp (Cannabis sativa subsp. Sativa) as an Emerging Source for Value-Added Functional Food Ingredients and Nutraceuticals. Molecules. 2020 Sep 7;25(18):4078. DOI: 10.3390/molecules25184078.

[4] Craig Schluttenhofer, Ling Yuan, Challenges towards Revitalizing Hemp: A Multifaceted Crop, Trends in Plant Science, Volume 22, Issue 11, 2017, Pages 917-929, ISSN 1360-1385, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2017.08.004.

[5] Lovley Derek R., Walker David J. F. (2019). Geobacter Protein Nanowires, Frontiers in Microbiology, Volume 10, ISSN=1664-302X, DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.02078   

[6] Bond DR, Lovley DR. Electricity production by Geobacter sulfurreducens attached to electrodes. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2003 Mar;69(3):1548-55. DOI: 10.1128/AEM.69.3.1548-1555.2003.

[7] Weronika E, Łukasz K. Tardigrades in Space Research - Past and Future. Orig Life Evol Biosph. 2017 Dec;47(4):545-553. Epub 2016 Oct 20. PMID: 27766455; PMCID: PMC5705745. DOI: 10.1007/s11084-016-9522-1.

[8] Neves, R.C., Hvidepil, L.K.B., Sørensen-Hygum, T.L. et al. Thermotolerance experiments on active and desiccated states of Ramazzottius varieornatus emphasize that tardigrades are sensitive to high temperatures. Sci Rep 10, 94 (2020). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-56965-z

[9] Cortesão, Marta & Schütze, Tabea & Marx, Robert & Moeller, Ralf & Meyer, Vera. (2020). Fungal Biotechnology in Space: Why and How?. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-29541-7_18. 

Libraries and Frameworks:

1. https://vincentgarreau.com/particles.js/#nasa
2. http://www.turnjs.com/#
3. https://materializecss.com/

Tools:

1. https://www.flaticon.com/
2. https://openai.com/dall-e-2/

#website #book #art #paintwork #story #space #biology #organism #NASA #oilpaint