JunkBusters| Orbital Scrap Metal – The Video Game V2.0
Awards & Nominations
JunkBusters has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!
Orbital Scrap Metal – The Video Game V2.0
Junk Busting Satellite: The Game
Summary
Our game and the website that goes with it aims to inform the public about the dangers that the orbital space debris poses to satellites in Earth's orbit. At the same time, it also demonstrates our idea of a solution to this problem.
How We Addressed This Challenge
In this game, you play as the operator of a junk busting satellite from a top-down 2D perspective. To help you clean up the junk, the satellite is armed with a high-powered laser and a net. The laser is used to blast the smaller pieces of debris, while the larger pieces need to be captured with the net. You must do this while dodging the debris at the same time. Getting hit even once by the smallest of debris can critically damage your spacecraft. The mechanics of this game where you have to manage multiple things at once make for a hectic and hopefully a fun experience.
We also made a website for the game, which helps explain in further detail what the game is all about. On the website, you can read up further information on the issues and dangers posed by space debris, and our solution for this problem, the junk busting satellite.
Hopefully, by taking a look at our website and playing our game, people will gain a deeper understanding on space debris, and the problems they create.
Website link:https://www.supakit.vseries.cc
How We Developed This Project
When our team first met, we quickly introduced ourselves and discussed about our areas of expertise. Then, we focused on brainstorming and creating ideas for this challenge. When we eventually finalized our idea. We then went on to defining our jobs and roles according to our expertise. Finally, we got to work.
For the game, we used Unity as the game engine, and it was written in C# language. All of the models used in the game were created with SolidWorks.
For the website, we first designed it with Adobe Illustrator. We then created the website with HTML using Virtual Studio Code.
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
When we were researching about space debris, we read up many articles and looked at a lot of data from NASA. It influenced our project greatly because if we didn't have any of that data, we wouldn't have much of an idea on what is space debris in the first place. The resources we were provided were a great help to our project.
However, because of the nature and the mechanics of the game, we couldn't figure out a way to directly implement the space debris data provided by NASA or the other partner agencies. We hope to work on that in the future once we become better at this.
Project Demo
Video Link (updated): https://www.dropbox.com/s/pgezn9p2z2cx4ww/Junk%20buster%202.mp4?dl=0
Data & Resources
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/hq/library/find/bibliographies/space_debris
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.html
https://www.orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/what-is-space-junk-and-why-is-it-a-problem.html#:~:text=While%20there%20are%20about%202%2C000,if%20they%20hit%20something%20else.