Nasa Space Apps: Astra Semper

PROJECT ASTRA SEMPER

Team:  Julieth Lorne, Daniel  Reyes, Lesley Hairston, Kevin Lorne, Jay Rosen, Paul Musynski

Created for NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2023 at Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, FL

Nasa Project - https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/2023/find-a-team/astra-semper/?tab=project

GitHub - https://github.com/jayrosen-design/Nasa

Deck - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DAPOZ5H1ffc6uQZvCeWyUPghUsNHyjkngDVYxXPqw1g/

HIGH-LEVEL SUMMARY

Astra Semper explores how future Earthlings might get to Titan and establish mining colonies utilizing artificial intelligence, robotic builders, ion propulsion for space travel and combustible propulsion for lift. Astra Semper is an interactive game where you are the Commander. Your mission is to establish a colony on Titan from which we can mine liquid methane and sustain human life. NASA has spent the past five years transporting construction drones and using them to build a habitable base camp for humans on Titan. Now that humans are arriving at Titan, Astra Semper's Commander must plan to replenish food reserves with hydroponic gardens and farms in space. It is up to you to choose which foods are most efficient to grow. Once the colony has established gardens, the Commander must choose to either research technologies on Titan and explore the area surrounding the new colony or start mining immediately. Throughout the game, we include scientific facts that inform the player about space travel, Titan, and long term space habitation. As our project is interactive and puts the player in a leadership role as NASA's Commander, we anticipate that everyone from first-time space explorers to longterm NASA enthusiasts will be eager to see just how they fare on humanity's greatest space voyage to (the 1000 years in the future) date.

PROJECT DETAILS

Astra Semper is a single-player, resource gathering-survival game. The primary scene is a virtual reality simulation showing our spaceship, Valkyrie II, launching from the Ares moon base and arriving at Titan (at 3023 speeds.) That first ship arrives carrying colonists, fuel, and food reserves and returns to the moon base with liquid methane for use back on the home planet. The route remains open throughout the duration of the game bringing more people and resources to Titan and returning to the Earth's moon base with minerals and liquid methane gathered on Titan.

While that trade route is running, the Commander must complete mini in-game missions to secure food, advance scientific research, and map the surrounding areas. The results of the mini-games will either boost or decimate the replenishment rates of the primary game running in the background.

For this project, the team used Flutter, Unity, C#, ChatGPT, and Grammarly in developing this app. Canva was also used for storyboarding.

Photos added of and by the team were captured on location at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral.

SPACE AGENCY DATA

• Titan: Facts
• Aerogels: Thinner, Lighter, Stronger
• Deep Space Habitation Overview
• TitanAir: Leading-Edge Liquid Collection to Enable Cutting-Edge Science
• Saturn Fact Sheet
• PIA17655: Titan's North
• NASA Completes Multi-Drone Test in Downtown Reno

REFERENCES

• Facts about Titan
• Dragonfly
• Saturn, as seen from Titan, with Cassini just visible