The NASA Space Apps Challenge is coming to Adelaide 23-24th April, 2016.
The NASA Space Apps Challenge 2016 is an international hackathon conducted in over 200 locations worldwide.
We invite engineers, coders, makers, artists entrepreneurs scientists and storytellers to connect over mission-related challenges, participating in NASA's Open Innovation Initiative. Together, citizens like you have developed thousands of open-source solutions. Your big ideas are shaped using data visualizations, hardware, code, design, even board games, and more!
If you are an individual thinking of registering and need help forming or joining a team, please dont hesitate to contact us, either via Twitter @SpaceAppsAdl or via email at adlspaceapp2016 AT phaze dot space !
There are challenges this year in the following categories:
Here in South Australia we like to put our own spin on things therefore in addition to the above, you are invited to tackle a special local challenge we have arranged in collaboration with Associate Professor Graziella Caprarelli, co-founder of Marvel STEM and the Italian Osservatorio di Radioastronomia Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica.
Lead organiser, Andrew McDonnell (Twitter: @pastcompute) will run one (or more as needed) tutorials across weekend on the on how to use github to manage code, artwork, diagrams, etc. and on other tools you might find useful managing or creating your entry.
Note: this challenge is NOT eligible for progression to international judging
MARVEL (MARS Australian Remote Virtual Experiment Laboratory) is a virtual laboratory for students, teachers and scientists to study and analyse real-life planetary data from Mars-orbiting satellites. It allows students and teachers to experience authentic science and simultaneously progresses scientific discoveries about Mars. The MARVEL team now wants your help to develop a citizen science app so that anyone who wishes to can participate in this voyage of discovery!
Please read the Challenge Background sheet for an briefing on the analysis to date.
The material describing mars express - the search for water and the mars express instrument design will also be useful.
In summary:
- The MARVEL project includes processing of ground penetrating radar data from Mars, collected by the MARSIS sounder on board Mars Express, available from the public Planetary Science Achive (PSA) of the European Space Agency.
- The processing includes classifying the images and looking for 'subsurface' "interfaces"
- Within the MARVEL project we will produce a user-friendly processing for citizen science and education opening the possibility for interested members of the community to participate in the work of processing the MARSIS data. This will enable the MARSIS mission scientists to interpret the data and discover what “lurks” under the surface of Mars.
- A simple software prototype has been developed by the Co-Principal Investigation on the MARSIS experiment, Dr Orosei – and adapted for this challenge by Andrew McDonnell, and a detail description is in the Challenge Background sheet
- The prototype was created using the computer language 'Matlab'
- Matlab is a scientific computer langauge useful to scientists, but not readily applicable to websites or mobile device.
The Matlab code is found at https://github.com/SpaceAppsAdl/SouthAustraliaChallenge2016/tree/master/MatlabCode
A video of the Matlab code in use is at https://youtu.be/IoK3P6s1RHw
Help the MARVEL team reaching out to citizen scientists and school students using your imagination, design, art or coding skills. To participate in this challenge, use your imagination, design, art or your coding skills to assist the MARVEL team.
One key goal is to convert the computer program into a more accessible language, for example Python.
owever, if your skills are in other areas, and you wish to participate, feel free to let your imagination run - just some ideas include creating an infogram about the data, producing a video, rewriting the available information into a poster understandable to your children, and so on.
Further information, including eligibility criteria for all challenges, and local prize categories, will be annouced at kickoff.