The International Space Apps Challenge

[pendell]

From Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2012/03/the-world-hacks-nasa-in-international-space-apps-challenge.ars?clicked=related_right)



An international code-a-thon is set to take place in April on seven continents. And in space. From April 21-23, the 48-hour International Space Apps Challenge (ISAC) will take place in tech hubs and other spaces from San Francisco to Sao Paolo, Jakarta to Antarctica—and aboard the International Space Station. Crew members of the McMurdo Station in Antarctica and the ISS will participate, depending on the days’ work demands. Those who cannot attend at one of the code-a-thon locations are able to register independently to participate online.

ISAC is sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in conjunction with the Second Muse think tank, and in cooperation with other space agencies. During the event, "citizens from around the world will work together to solve current challenges relevant to both space exploration and social need... using minimal resources and maximum brainpower to create outside-the-box solutions in response to interesting problems," according to the organizers.

Participants will form teams and tackle a set of pre-determined challenges that include creating an interface for NASA's planetary data, developing an HTLM5 tablet app for citizen scientists using earth science data from NASA's Earth Observations site, and an open data challenge that will use information from the Kepler space observatory.

One of the intriguing elements of the challenge is the goal to "(e)ngage citizens in countries with little or no investments in space exploration to contribute to space exploration through open source, open data, and code development." This is one of the reasons the challenge is being hosted by, among others, Nairobi, Kenya's iHub. Kenyans are not renowned for their space program but they are well known for their coding chops.


I'm wondering if anyone here would be participating? And are the teams already picked, or can they be organized? I wonder if a giantITP team could participate ...

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[carpentron]

a giantITP team would be cool, i would be down to try

[Grinner]

I'm interested. :smallsmile:

[pendell]

I sent in a few question on just what is involved with virtual participation and how one would go about forming a virtual team from, say, a facebook group. We'll see what answers we get.

I myself intend to register and participate in the handheld software initiative, because it applies directly to the things I work with and I can make the most contribution to.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[carpentron]

At my job I do a lot of PHP/SQL/Javascript/HTML/CSS so I can contribute there if needed.
I have done some (ok when I was in school mostly :smallsmile:) work in C/C++/Java.

[Form]

Oooh, nice. I won't participate myself since I don't think I have enough coding experience just yet to make a decent contribution, but I very much like the idea of this open programming marathon. You guys have my support. :smallsmile:

[Grinner]

Also, I'm familiar with C/C++ and the basics of HTML. Any recommendations on what to learn for the competition? I've been thinking of learning how to use SFML (http://www.sfml-dev.org/), but HTML5, Perl, and Ruby also seem like good ideas....

Any recommendations?


Oooh, nice. I won't participate myself since I don't think I have enough coding experience just yet to make a decent contribution, but I very much like the idea of this open programming marathon. You guys have my support. :smallsmile:

If you understand the fundamentals of your language of choice and conventional program architecture, I think you'd do just fine. In any case, another brain would always be helpful. :smallwink:

[Ranger Mattos]

Cool. I wouldn't be able to do anything much by myself, but I could work as part of a team. I know some HTML5/CSS/Javascript, and also some Java.

Also, I noticed on the official site (spaceappschallenge.org/locations/):


Space
Low Earth Orbit

International Space Station
Note: Transportation will not be provided

Dang it, no transportation provided to the ISS.

[pendell]

Well, I just completed my registration and will be spending some time to play around and explore to see how best I fit in. There are a number of projects , each with a different skill set:




Open Data Challenge -- Kepler

The challenge is to help NASA either a) make Kepler data more accessible or b) create something amazing with it. It could be an app that better visualizes the data, an interface that presents the data in a new way, an infographic that helps understand the data in a new way, or more. The centuries-old quest for other worlds like our Earth has been rejuvenated by the intense excitement and popular interest surrounding the discovery ...

Open Data Challenge -- Kepler

The challenge is to help NASA either a) make Kepler data more accessible or b) create something amazing with it. It could be an app that better visualizes the data, an interface that presents the data in a new way, an infographic that helps understand the data in a new way, or more. The centuries-old quest for other worlds like our Earth has been rejuvenated by the intense excitement and popular interest surrounding the discovery ...

Handheld Hardware for Citizen Science

The challenge is to develop plug-in hardware that can be used for any one of NASA’s citizen science missions, such as the creation of a spectrometer, photometer, or other instrumentation. A solution could include an open source framework to allow a variety of external sensors to interface with common smartphones. Sensors could measure atmospheric conditions, the radioactive environment over time, electromagnetic interference, or a variety of other conditions. The degraded accuracy of a commercial-grade mobile ...

Open Data Challenge -- Kepler

The challenge is to help NASA either a) make Kepler data more accessible or b) create something amazing with it. It could be an app that better visualizes the data, an interface that presents the data in a new way, an infographic that helps understand the data in a new way, or more. The centuries-old quest for other worlds like our Earth has been rejuvenated by the intense excitement and popular interest surrounding the discovery ...
Handheld Hardware for Citizen Science

The challenge is to develop plug-in hardware that can be used for any one of NASA’s citizen science missions, such as the creation of a spectrometer, photometer, or other instrumentation. A solution could include an open source framework to allow a variety of external sensors to interface with common smartphones. Sensors could measure atmospheric conditions, the radioactive environment over time, electromagnetic interference, or a variety of other conditions. The degraded accuracy of a commercial-grade mobile ...


Size of the Earth App

Develop an app that facilitates a set of cooperative observations from which the app can determine the size of the Earth. An ingenious Greek astronomer named Eratosthenes, living about 2500 years ago, not only knew that the Earth was round, but was able to accurately determine its size! You and a new friend can do the same, with the assistance of this app! Eratosthenes grew up along the Gulf of Sidra, in what is now ...

Open Data Challenge -- Kepler

The challenge is to help NASA either a) make Kepler data more accessible or b) create something amazing with it. It could be an app that better visualizes the data, an interface that presents the data in a new way, an infographic that helps understand the data in a new way, or more. The centuries-old quest for other worlds like our Earth has been rejuvenated by the intense excitement and popular interest surrounding the discovery ...

Handheld Hardware for Citizen Science

The challenge is to develop plug-in hardware that can be used for any one of NASA’s citizen science missions, such as the creation of a spectrometer, photometer, or other instrumentation. A solution could include an open source framework to allow a variety of external sensors to interface with common smartphones. Sensors could measure atmospheric conditions, the radioactive environment over time, electromagnetic interference, or a variety of other conditions. The degraded accuracy of a commercial-grade mobile ...

Size of the Earth App

Develop an app that facilitates a set of cooperative observations from which the app can determine the size of the Earth. An ingenious Greek astronomer named Eratosthenes, living about 2500 years ago, not only knew that the Earth was round, but was able to accurately determine its size! You and a new friend can do the same, with the assistance of this app! Eratosthenes grew up along the Gulf of Sidra, in what is now ...
NASA Planetary Data System Interface

Develop a tool for citizen scientists, educators, and students to access NASA’s Planetary Data System data sets, which is available at http://pds.nasa.gov/.

HTML5 App to access NASA Earth Observations website

Develop a stand-alone HTLM5 tablet app that would reach a large number of citizen scientists using Earth Science Data from the NASA Earth Observations (NEO) website (http://neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov). The website currently provides access to a wide array of missions and instrument data, and the ability to statistically analyze the information. It is focused on Earth Science, but will be extended to include planetary systems datasets in the future. NASA is currently building an app called “Science ...

Preliminary Design for Open Data API

Scope out and design the hooks and actions necessary for application developers to interface with NASA datasets through an API. NASA has thousands of publicly available datasets, ranging from deep-space radiation readings to geospatial imaging of the earth’s surface. While an API exists at data.nasa.gov to read these datasets’ metadata, there is no standard way to access the data itself.

Create Semantic Data Descriptor File

The challenge is the creation of a semantic XML/RDF method for describing the contents of NASA datasets. NASA has thousands of publicly available datasets, ranging from deep-space radiation readings to geospatial imaging of the earth’s surface. Currently, there is no standard way to semantically describe the contents of a dataset in a way that is both easy to understand and machine readable. For this challenge, create a template taxonomy and descriptor file based off open ...

OpenROV Framework Development

The challenge is to further the development of hardware, software, and communications interfaces to visually and bathymetrically map the ocean floor, in an opensource fashion. More specifically, to create a platform that will allow open source underwater robots, like the OpenROV 2.3 design, to take imagery of their local undersea environment, open their data to visualization applications like Google Earth, while simultaneously acquiring crowdsourced analysis of the imagery in question. Properly standardized APIs would make ...

Redesign the Voyager Golden Record

The challenge is to redesign the Voyager Golden Record to reflect what would have been encapsulated on it, had Voyager 1 and 2 launched in 2012. When Voyager 1 and 2 left the Earth in 1977, they carried on board with them a golden phonograph record which encapsulated images and data about the Earth and its inhabitants, primarily focusing on the current (at that time) state of human development. Times have certainly changed and if ...

Space-based 3D Printing platform

Develop on opensource framework to cheaply and easily create parts in space using raw materials and electronically transmitted 3D models.

Aurora Layer for Google Earth

Create an Aurora layer on Google Earth using real-time observations from NASA spacecraft.

Satellite Imagery to Assess Rural Electrification

1.6 billion people in the world do not have access to electricity, and many more have recently been introduced to rural electrification programs. However, the resulting effect has not been understood very well. Often after the initial investment has been made the outcomes of these programs is unknown. Using satellite imagery one could track rural electrification programs over time. Specifically one could look at the effect of these programs in rural settings by comparing those ...

Dark Skies App

A smartphone app to measure sky brightness directly. A variety of organisations support Dark Skies initiatives and measuring how dark it is at night is a key step towards improving our view of the night sky. Most methods ask people to note how many stars they can see in a particular patch of the sky. The app would measure sky brightness directly using the smartphone camera and then send this information, together with time and ...

BakerFaire

Being in space for long periods can really make people miss home and small things can make a big difference to your emotional state. In 2008 the Astronaut Don Pettit built a prototype coffee cup that enable him to pour coffee at Zero G. The taste was the same. The texture was the same. The smell was the same – but who drinks coffee from straws? But why stop at coffee? Can we set a ...

WeLoveData Challenge

This open ideation challenge will create a large-scale virtual community dialogue to “think outside of the box” on ways we can engage and use spaceflight data - and local experiments on how to make that tangible. There is a certain thrill that you feel when you know that you are connected to something. From our earliest use of technology to synchronise and connect our communities we have used simple interactions to inform people. Whether it ...

"Where is the Fleet?"

Create an Iphone/Ipad/Android app to bring together information about the whereabouts, status and activities of all of the active space probes (not just NASA but including ESA, Japanese, Russian etc). The app would show the positions of space probes in the Solar System and provide a visual demonstration of the huge amount of activity going on in space. Links would go to the official websites for each probe to provide further information. A Twitter feed ...

Mobile Environment Mapping

A mobile SMS/USSD geospatial data visualization application that allows users to post at realtime about any environmental degradation activity happening within their vicinity. E.g. Charcoal burning, Plastic bags dumping, Effluents & Emissions etc. these are then mapped to allow appropriate reverse measures to be taken by relevant authorities, NGOs & CSOs.


The one to redesign the golden record would seem to be the most interesting to speculate about, while "where is the fleet" would pull together my skills at database and smartphone work. Time to do some thinking!

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[carpentron]

The one to redesign the golden record would seem to be the most interesting to speculate about, while "where is the fleet" would pull together my skills at database and smartphone work. Time to do some thinking!
The "Preliminary Design for Open Data API" sounds interesting. Simple information retrieval is vital to collaboration and collectively improving technology.

"where is the fleet" is also cool. Though I don't know about it being just a phone app. I mean imagine try to simulate the vastness of space and visualize thousands of spacecraft on a 3.5" screen :smallsigh: