Martians| Can You Hear Me Now?
Can You Hear Me Now?
Mars X
Summary
It is a 2D, unity-based video game project in which the player is assigned a mission on Mars. The player, while conducting his mission, would face obstacles each time he sends data to earth. The game has interactive scenes and various challenges for communication. Challenges introduced in the game include the effect of planets’ rotation on direct-to-earth communication, the effect of mars dust on communication devices, the effect of both planets getting farther apart from each other, the effect of having the sun lied between both planets. Each challenge is represented in interactive, animated scenes with sufficient explanation and suggestions to overcome these challenges.
How We Addressed This Challenge
We developed a 2D unity-based video game. It has lots of interactive tasks and animations aimed to educate the player about the challenges astronauts face while communicating with NASA on earth.
We believe that the game is important because it raises awareness of the threats astronauts might face while on mars. It also raises public knowledge about space communication and the various satellites and the rich history of attempts to make stable communication with astronauts on mars. In addition, this would be the beginning of lots of applications such as internet on mars and constructing space stations as well.
The game starts with the player being in NASA headquarters, where he would be informed of his mission. His mission is to investigate the possibility of harvesting crops on mars’ soil. The player is asked to send the data collected from his experiments. However, the player would face obstacles each time he sends the results to earth. Each obstacle could be considered as a follow up of the one before it. This form of storytelling would inform the player about the challenges an astronaut might face while communicating from the smallest issue to the biggest. Each obstacle is explained with texts and animations and suggestions are provided to overcome those obstacles.
We hope that by launching our game to the public we could achieve our goal of raising awareness about communication challenges on mars and the importance of overcoming those challenges to pave the way for a better future.
How We Developed This Project
We believe Can You Hear Me Now challenge is an interesting one to participate in because raising public knowledge about hardships faced by astronauts while communicating from mars would benefit us for future plans such as Mars colonisation.
Our game is based on Unity and C#. We designed our environment and character using Adobe Illustrator. The biggest challenge we faced was our laptops. They are our school laptops and they are limited in their abilities to perform heavy tasks such as developing a game. We had lots of time delays due to our laptops getting overheated, but, in the end, we managed to create a game we are proud of.
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
Although the main purpose of “Can you hear me Now?” challenge is to display a high-level demonstration of the futuristic communication challenges with Mars, a scientific, cutting-edge story was vital for our team to immerse the player in the game. The story of the game is about a botanist who will investigate the possibility of growing crops in Mars’s soil. This story was inspired by NASA “Mars to Moon” website, especially an article titled Farming in Martian gardens. Despite the massiveness of NASA’s other intended mission in space, the investigation of growing crops on Mars will be the first steps towards MARS colonisation. Hence, besides demonstrating the communication challenges, the team were enthusiastic to give the players an insight into the nature of some of the most illuminating and significant future missions to Mars.
As mentioned in the previous answers, the player will be encountered with different situations where he will choose the best communication method to send the research results. To satisfy the educational part of the game, one of the options provided will be Radio, X-ray or Gamma rays. As a result, the player will build in his mind the foundation of deep space communication field and what part of the electromagnetic spectrum is used for communication. All the information provided in this stage is provided directly from NASA’s “Share the science” website. The information includes the exact wavelength and frequency of used communication radio waves and why they are the appropriate choice for communication, rather than Gamma Rays or X-rays.
Through the site-to-site communication stage, the game will provide a highly-level animated video of the radio waves path and the deep space network on Earth. The player will learn that the astronauts do not necessarily send the data to one single specific point on the Earth. The animation video displayed will be based on NASA’s videos demonstration and an article named” What is the deep space network” in space communication section.
Using articles and Data from Mars Exploration program website, the game will display the solar conjunction phenomena and how could the sun disrupt and damage the data sent, in case the player chooses a wrong choice.
Through the inspiring Curiosity rover website, the game will show the player another level of communication complexity, where he will have to choose a relaying satellite orbiting around Mars, Odyssey and reconnaissance satellites specifically. Speed and shape of orbit are taken from each satellite’s website.
Indeed, although the majority of the data collected is not numerical as expected from most space games, the information provided will give all the players, despite their ages, the base for deep space communication with Mars and what are the probable challenges the astronauts will have when settling on Mars.
Project Demo
https://youtu.be/TdzO1-VQGEY
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c_pHRVrWB57OsmUvrY4smqtNcVchifEx/view?usp=sharing
Project Code
Data & Resources
- Heiney, A. (2016, September 28). Farming in 'Martian Gardens'. Retrieved September 29, 2020, from https://www.nasa.gov/feature/farming-in-martian-gardens
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Science Mission Directorate. (2010). Radio Waves. Retrieved September 29, 2020, from NASA Science website: http://science.nasa.gov/ems/05_radiowaves
- Tzinis, I. (2020, March 30). About the Deep Space Network. Retrieved September 30, 2020, from https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/scan/services/networks/deep_space_network/about
- Good, A. (2019, August 23). What's Mars Solar Conjunction, and Why Does It Matter? Retrieved September 30, 2020, from https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7485
- NASA, (2019, August 08). Communications with Earth. Retrieved September 30, 2020, from https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission/communications/
- Hille, K. (2015, March 19). Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Retrieved September 30, 2020, from https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/main/index.html