Erit Lux| Can You Hear Me Now?
Can You Hear Me Now?
CoMars - Decide for better communication with Mars
Summary
CoMars is a game for science and universe exploration fans who would become the commanders of the first mission to reach Mars. As a Commander, the user will make a series of decisions to communicate effectively with NASA's control center and complete successfully the mission given.
How We Addressed This Challenge
To address this challenge we had into account that the solution required was to develop an interactive mechanism to explore and expose the challenges of communication between Earth and Mars, and not to design the communication device itself.
Given this, we considered that the challenge had a pedagogic point of view. That’s why we decided to create a game that helped science and universe exploration fans (boys and girls over 13) to learn the challenges we have to communicate with Mars. For this effect, we established a narrative and a dynamic that allowed the user to learn while playing, in a simple and immersive way.
Currently, we don't have all the tools and knowledge to communicate efficiently with Mars. However, it is relevant that we help the next generations to approximate this kind of knowledge. Possibly, these young players would be inspired to pursue a career that helps them solve what we see today as a problem.
CoMars is a game in which the user becomes the commander of the first mission to reach Mars. As a Commander, the user will make a series of decisions ( two options per choice scenario) to communicate effectively with NASA's control center and complete successfully the mission given. When the user makes a good choice, the signal status with the Earth will increase, on the contrary it will decrease. Additionally, the user will have access to “Library Cards” that explain topics that are relevant for the choice scenario.
CoMars, is a minimum viable product that shows the potential to include other types of challenges that NASA and users consider possible (finding life, climatic conditions, geological conditions, spaceship travels and technology development) to teach and inspire future space scientists.
How We Developed This Project
What inspired your team to choose this challenge?
One of the principal sources of inspiration to tackle the challenge "Can you listen to me now?" lies in the fact that not all of us could travel to Mars in the future. It is there where communication takes a fundamental role to explore everything that we cannot do physically. On the other hand, it makes us think how we could keep in touch with the Martians, so that they can never forget where they come from, and also share their experiences, feelings, and knowledge with us. All of the above makes us understand that communication has been and will continue to be a fundamental tool for scientific and human development.
What was your approach to developing this project?
We took into account the science fiction that we have seen and read. We took as a source of inspiration for this challenge the movie The Martian, which shows the communication challenges that the protagonists had and how they were solved.
To tackle the challenge, we decided to make a game with a simple dynamic that consists of making decisions, where, according to the actions taken by the user, it will take them through an educational experience that will allow them to understand the advantages and disadvantages of interplanetary communication.
What tools, coding languages, hardware, software did you use to develop your project?
To develop CoMars we made use of the following tools: Adobe XD, Figma, Adobe Premier, Adobe Illustrator, Miro, Jamboard, and GSuite.
What problems and achievements did your team have?
Creating CoMars wasn’t easy since we faced two main problems or challenges. The first of them was that we needed to understand the conceptual background of the communication between Mars and the Earth so that we could create the correct narrative of the game. On the other hand, we had a moment in the ideation phase where we proposed a solution that was very complex in terms of technical execution and economic feasibility. The latter prompted us to limit the scope of the solution and think of an easier way to get the same result.
Even though we faced those challenges as a team, we consider that our greatest achievement was that CoMars was able to connect the different professional backgrounds of each member of the team.
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
The available resources of the challenge “Can you hear me now?” helped us define the narrative of the game, and also have been taken as the principal source of the Library included in CoMars.
Project Demo
Data & Resources
Multimedia used. (2015, 01 01). Movie: The Martian. Ridley Scott. Retrieved October 03, 2020, from https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/the-martian
Multimedia used. (2020, 01 01). Vectors from the app. Copyright Free Resources. Retrieved October 04, 2020, from https://www.freepik.com/
NASA. (2018, September 05). What is a relay satellite? Relay Satellite Communications. Retrieved October 03, 2020, from https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/scan/communications/outreach/funfacts/txt_relay_satellite.html
NASA. (2020, 01 01). The first woman on the moon: The first step to Mars. ARTEMIS. Retrieved October 04, 2020, from https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis/
NASA. (2020, 01 01). Mars Exploration Program: The Red Planet - Dashboard. Mars Exploration Program. Retrieved October 03, 2020, from https://mars.nasa.gov/#red_planet/1
NASA. (2020, 01 01). Mars in our Night Sky: Mars Opposition. Mars Exploration Program. Retrieved October 03, 2020, from https://mars.nasa.gov/all-about-mars/night-sky/close-approach/#:~:text=When%20Mars%20and%20Earth%20are,every%2015%20or%2017%20years.
NASA. (2020, 01 01). Solar Conjunction: Mars in a Minute: What Happens When the Sun Blocks our Signal? Mars Exploration Program. Retrieved October 03, 2020, from https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/20122/mars-in-a-minute-what-happens-when-the-sun-blocks-our-signal/
NASA. (2020, March 30). Deep Space Network: Triangular arrangement for communications between spatial devices. What is the Deep Space Network? Retrieved October 03, 2020, from https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/scan/services/networks/deep_space_network/about