Space Alert

Cairo | Build a Space Biology Superhero

Space Alert- We don't travel alone

High-Level Project Summary

A website was developed to increase space awareness and present the stresses that astronauts face during spaceflight under the name of risks. Also, the website presents some information about some biological organisms that have sent to space. Finally, the website presents a Space Biology Superhero that combines some of the characteristics in the presented biological organisms. The importance of the website lies in its aim to increase space awareness and suggest potential biological organisms to be sent to space. Also, targets researchers at NASA.

Link to Final Project

http://oro.liveblog365.com/

Link to Project "Demo"

https://youtu.be/k-3G13jfcrI

Detailed Project Description

The developed website is aimed towards the public audience, it does not necessarily require all audience to have prior scientific knowledge of space missions and life of astronauts. It works on increasing public awareness to space exploration, the role of astronauts in space, what stresses do astronauts meet in space, and mentions the current advancements and research that is being done to eliminate each problem astronauts face. The website can be also used by experts in the fields of space exploration, as NASA researchers, because the website provides a wide range of information about the features and characteristics of the biological organisms that were sent to space and identifies the special qualities in their structure that helped them in surviving outside the Earth and surpass the biological features of humans. By using the previous information, the website includes a part where the recommendations and conclusions about the Space Biology Superhero is made. It contains a combination of the special features of the sent living organisms and provides examples to what organisms can be sent out to space.

The website is divided into 4 main pages, which are the Home page, About page, Risks page and Organisms page. Home page includes an introduction to the website, a video explaining the purpose of the website, which can be accessed through “Watch our video” button. The website allows you to explore the website through the “Travel with us” button. The About page includes some information about the team, and the aim of the website. The Risks page includes explanations of 10 risks that astronauts endure during spaceflight and a detailed description of each risk, with explanatory figures. The Organisms page contains a description of the features and characteristics of 10 of the living organisms that were sent to space, with explanatory figures. Additionally, it contains a combination of these features into a Space Biology Superhero, and recommendations of current living organisms that have these features, so it acts as a recommendation page where it can help experts in choosing suitable living organisms for various space missions.

The benefits of the website is that it is easily accessible and targeted towards the public, without requiring background knowledge of space. In addition, it is aimed to help NASA researchers in choosing the most suitable organisms for each mission, based on the characteristics provided in the website and the combined characteristics provided in the Space Biology Superhero.

As a team, we hope that the website spreads the understanding of space exploration and its benefits and risks. Moreover, we believe that the website will help users to understand more about the biological organisms sent to space and the recommended Space Biology Superhero that was concluded after research.

The website is made by a software framework, which is WordPress.

Space Agency Data

https://humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov/risks/

https://science.nasa.gov/biological-physical/programs/space-biology

https://www.nasa.gov/hrp/5-hazards-of-human-spaceflight/

https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/astronauts/space-medicine/concerns.asp

The previous Space Agency data provided the project with enough information about the risks astronauts encounter in space missions and the biology of living organisms that were sent out to space, helping us conclude our Space Biology Superheroes. It inspired us to search deeply into the websites of the Space Agencies and helped us to provide valuable accurate data to our project.

Hackathon Journey

Our Apps experience is a one-of-a-kind experience, as we learned more about space exploration and enriched our curious minds with valuable information about the daily life of astronauts and the living organisms that were sent to space. We also enjoyed discussing our Space Biology Superheroes after considering all the super adaptations of the living organisms that were sent to space. The teamworking experience helped us in broadening our visions and respecting each other’s opinions. In conclusion, our Apps experience helped us gain more knowledge by working as a team.

The inspiration that encouraged us to take on this challenge is its importance and its need to be addressed, as it discusses the health risks astronauts are exposed to during their space missions, which can be life threatening. Therefore, we were encouraged to work on this challenge.

We approached this challenge using the Engineering Design Process (EDP), as we first identified the problem at hand, which was spreading knowledge about space exploration to the users, then we did our background research into the risks astronauts face during missions, the special biological features in sent organisms to space, then we specified our design requirements as we wanted to create a website the showed all of the gathered information in an interactive and creative way. Next, we worked on our software prototype, adding the gathered information to the website, and using the software framework WordPress in the development process. Finally, we wrote a summary of the project and its detailed description, as a form of communication after the completion of research.

Our team was extremely respectful to each members’ opinions; thus, no conflictions arose between the members. A setback that we faced was the malfunction of the main laptop our work was saved on, fortunately, a member of the team allowed the rest of the members to work on the member’s laptop. The previous exampled showed signs of teamwork and how the team was only passionate about the final objective and using every way to get there. All the members of the team are thankful to the great organization of the NASA Space Apps 2022 Hackathon, the mentors encouraged and helped us through the whole process and the logistics team helped us navigate through the AUC campus and help provide our needs. We would like to thank all the sponsors of the NASA Space Apps 2022 Hackathon, due to their support, as they provided us with this splendid experience.