Awards & Nominations
Griffins has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!
Virtual Planetary Exploration
Project: MoonKit
Summary
“What do astronauts do on the moon?”Project: MoonKit provides a way to answer this question. Our website features 3D models of previously used lunar geology tools in an interactive walkthrough aimed at teaching younger students the different ways in which lunar samples are collected. The story-driven walkthrough has the player utilize the different tools in order to complete specific tasks, and learn about the tools along the way. The website can be accessed at https://moonkit.us.
How We Addressed This Challenge
Project: Moonkit utilizes custom-made 3D models of historic lunar exploration tools and presents them in an interactive, narrative-driven, and engaging manner for a wide audience. The player starts out in the middle of a fictional moon mission, standing on the lunar surface and gazing up at the stars. They must complete several simple geological tasks before they can go back to Earth: collecting various rock and soil samples, brushing off dust, and measuring the firmness of the lunar soil. The player has access to a “toolkit” in a panel on the site. The kit contains 3D-modeled tools corresponding to each task that the player must carry out. Clicking on the correct tool completes the task for the player. Additionally, clicking on any of the 3D tools allows you to view and manipulate them.
How We Developed This Project
Our project idea developed throughout the whole process. We began by brainstorming general aspects of our program as a whole, such as whether it should take place on the moon or Mars, and whether we should create one big tool or a lot of small ones. Once we decided to create a set of relatively simple tools and set our scene on the moon, we researched many of the lunar tools used in various Apollo missions. We then found and selected those most relevant to our project’s goal of facilitating interest and interactivity. Next, we made 3D models of those tools in Blender and exported them in GLTF format, which is suitable for web pages.
All of the 3D models were given corresponding icons to display in a toolbar on the site. A user may simply click on an icon to perform their desired task using the relevant tool. Then, we built a story around the tools and designed tasks that require their use, in order to make the experience of learning about these tools and their functions easier and more enjoyable.
We developed our website and added features to it throughout the hackathon. It is built with HTML/CSS/JS, jQuery, and THREE.js. We used THREE.js to render two separate 3D scenes: one for the website environment with a modeled sky and moon surface, and another that renders each 3D tool model we created (depending on which is selected). We implemented interactive camera controls when the user views a model of a tool, so that they can orbit, pan, and zoom around the object.
We made sure to think about the user's experience visiting the website, as well. We wanted to include some small details to make the website feel more polished, despite our time constraint. We chose the color theme of the website carefully, landing on blue hues that paired well with the starry sky image. When the user mouses over a button, we make sure to change the cursor type and change the button's text to bold so that it is clear they should click. We also close all pop-ups whenever the user clicks to open a new one, preventing the confusion of multiple pop-ups crowding the screen. There is also a custom-designed favicon that shows up on our site's tab in the user's browser.
Our team struggled with loading 3D models onto the webpage at first, but we worked together to debug and share snippets of working code. In the end, we are incredibly proud to have created a project that not only features our own 3D models but also uses them to tell a story and illuminate the incredible work that astronauts do on the moon!
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
We used NASA’s catalog of Apollo lunar sampling tools, their purpose, and their dimensions in our research and as reference images for our 3D models.
Project Demo
Check out our 30-second demo video here: https://youtu.be/pMv2bt8USBw!
Our MoonKit website URL is: http://moonkit.us/
Data & Resources
NASA’s Apollo tool catalog: https://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/catalogs/other/jsc23454toolcatalog.pdf
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum / more reference photos of the Apollo tools: https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/apollo-to-the-moon/online/science/sampling-the-moon.cfm
Various icons from The Noun Project: https://thenounproject.com/