We came across a few interesting challenges and after some discussion, we decided to settle for this one, the Sleep Shift Scheduling Tool. This challenge opened up opportunities for us to discover and gain insights about the life of an astronaut, how they live in space with such a different atmosphere and how they geared themselves towards achieving a healthy and productive journey. Besides, it was easier for us --who are amateurs to space knowledge-- to relate to sleeping, eating and exercising as these activities are piece and parcels of our lives.

After forming the team, we divided the tasks of searching for information and researching these activities in depth. We equipped ourselves with the knowledge we could find, shared the information we acquired and had frequent online discussions. When it was time for us to start hacking, the first problem that surfaced was that none of us were proficient in using Android Studio. However, we would not allow this to become a stumbling block for us and proceeded to construct our program framework in Netbeans IDE. We used Java as the main coding language. Another problem that our team encountered was the difficulty to compile the codes each of us worked on. Hence, we update one another with the latest code so that debugging could be done at a faster speed and greatly decrease the bugs while compiling the code.

Although problems arose, we are happy that we did not return empty-handed. Space knowledge was indeed an eye-opener for us. Teamwork was an essential factor that contributed to our achievements in this project. It also helped us to connect with one another amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, it marks a milestone for us as it is the first time we ever completed the framework of a project in such a short span of time. We are glad we took action to participate in this challenge and hope to do so in future.

As the host (and with the most resources regarding this challenge :D), our main source of information is the NASA’s official website, followed by information provided by its counterpart (ESA) and some additional ones from open sources.

Due to microgravity, astronauts are restrained to few exercises only, namely cycling on an ergometer, walking/running on a treadmill and build muscles using a resistance exercise device (RED). We obtained the MET values of these activities from The Compendium of Physical Activities to aid in determining the calories burned by the astronauts when they work out.

An article by NASA also explained about the nutrition guide to the astronauts’ optimum diet using infographics. We applied the formulas given to calculate the daily energy requirement of each astronaut. Astronauts also only have a limited choice of food that could be eaten hassle-free, hence it was important that we understand the types of food astronauts can consume in space to be able to come up with suggestions for each meal.

Moving on, the greatest challenge for all astronauts would probably be adapting to the environment (16 sunrises and sunsets per day!) and being able to sleep through it. Sufficient sleep is vital to ensure an astronaut is always at his/her tip-top condition during missions. Most missions suggest that astronauts should sleep at least 8 hours per day. Hence we created a program that enables the astronauts to monitor their sleeping duration and benefit from it.

Finally, a tipoff about the daily routine of an astronaut shared by Mr Thomas Pesquet (6 months Proxima mission) helped us to get a better understanding of an astronaut’s daily activities. An automated schedule was created that will display as a table reminding astronauts to follow these times strictly to maintain their circadian rhythm. When this routine is slightly disrupted by spacewalks, it may also help astronauts to tune their body clocks back to normal.

These precise datasets are from reliable sources and greatly contributed to our team's efforts in building this project.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VVRsuFtvKEWVYeuHoVqp7juEzMIVWfjd/view?usp=sharing

data from NASA

1. Three main exercises astronauts do
2. Energy required by astronauts and their optimum diet
3. An astronaut's work
4. Eating in space
5. Spacewalks
6. NASA research reveals biological clock misalignment effects on sleep for astronauts
7. List of food astronauts can eat in space

data from ESA

1. Routine of an astronaut

data from open sources

1. Compendium of physical activities
2. Sleep calculator
3. Your sleep cycle revealed
4. How to count macros
5. How to calculate number of calories burned exercising