MARS-Pitz| Can You Hear Me Now?
Can You Hear Me Now?
MARS-PITZ dealing with communication
Summary
This project seeks to represent in an interactive way and alluding to the concept of gamification, some of the most important problems experienced when establishing communication from Earth to such a distant place, like Mars.
How We Addressed This Challenge
Our team planned and developed (in some cases) various mini-games where in order to complete them you have to overcome a series of obstacles, such as a bad signal or a delay in communication, among others. One of the reasons of these problems is due to the distance of Mars in relation to Earth.
To access the mini-games, the user first enters a room and then can choose the challenge he/she will face. Once the challenge is chosen, he/she will be redirected to the corresponding mini-game and will try to give him/her best in order to solve the problem.
The intention of these short games is to make known the lack of infrastructure or knowledge humans have to communicate at first with other planets and in the future with other possible forms of life. This would undoubtedly be a hard challenge, but would provide us with a better vision of what we call life.
How We Developed This Project
We are a group of people with programming skills and knowledge lovers. However, we know that not all people have a good understanding of the dimensionality of a problem such as communication, that is why we decided to exemplify it in an accessible way.
To achieve this we use a Python programming module (pygame) for the implementation of the mini-games. Then we used a a 2D tile-based map editor (TILED) to create a room map where we incorporated all the games an where players can walk and enter directly to the wanted challenge.
We used some other useful tools for the development: python3, Atom, Teletype
One of the problems we faced was becoming familiar with the "pygame" library, as we did not fully understand its functionality, but fortunately we knew how to adapt. As the most relevant achievement, we highlight transmitting a real life problem in something so simple that any child can understand.
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
We had to search multiple information about how we currently communicate with the satelites in Mars. It helped us to expand the picture about the importance of making faster and smarter processes that bear recolection and transportation of data.
We use NASA´s information to create a game that create an idea in the mind of the players and show them the complexity of the comunication in a really, really long distance.
Specifically in the mini-game "Mars Odyssey" we considered the fact that there are periods during the year when communication between Earth and Mars is alterated, and that's why the user has to tune the antenna.
In the mini-game "Spatial Mission", we raise the fact that the communication signal can sometimes be alterated and despite that, astronauts still have to complete their missions.
Project Demo
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xrZM-V1iYGxkjqWZWWnu6_F9NWdaI_cSwfx1n0aBQ88/edit?usp=sharing
Data & Resources
- NASA Solar System Exploration. 2020. Mars. [online] Available at: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mars/overview/ [Accessed 4 October 2020].
- NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. 2020. NASA’S Mars Exploration Program. [online] Available at: https://mars.nasa.gov/ [Accessed 4 October 2020].
- NASA's InSight Mars Lander. 2020. Communications | Mission – NASA's Insight Mars Lander. [online] Available at: https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/mission/communications/ [Accessed 4 October 2020].
- NASA. 2020. About The Deep Space Network. [online] Available at: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/scan/services/networks/deep_space_network/about [Accessed 4 October 2020].
- NASA. 2020. Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC). [online] Available at: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdm/dsoc/index.html [Accessed 4 October 2020].
- NASA's Eyes. 2020. NASA’S Eyes. [online] Available at: https://eyes.nasa.gov/ [Accessed 4 October 2020].
- Mars.nasa.gov. 2020. Communications. [online] Available at: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/communications/ [Accessed 4 October 2020].
- NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. 2020. Communications With Earth | Mission – NASA’S Mars Exploration Program. [online] Available at: https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission/communications/ [Accessed 4 October 2020].
- Mars Odyssey Orbiter. (2020). Retrieved 4 October 2020, from https://mars.nasa.gov/odyssey/
- Communications with Earth | Mission – NASA’s Mars Exploration Program . (2020). Retrieved 4 October 2020, from https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission/communications/
- Deep Space Network Now. (2020). Retrieved 4 October 2020, from https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html
- Overview. (2020). Retrieved 4 October 2020, from https://mars.nasa.gov/odyssey/mission/overview/