#orbitaldebris, #spacejunk, #VR, #Oculus, #Amazon, #satellite, #education

See more information and our presentation on our website – https://scrapanaut.wixsite.com/mysite.

For further details on our code see Github - https://github.com/BenLesnik/NASA-Space-Apps-2019-Team-Scrapanaut.

The Scrapanaut game was built in a two day Hackathon at the University of Technology Sydney as part of NASA's Space Apps Challenge 2019.

The game was designed by the Scrapanaut Team: Hardik Trivedi, Ben Lesnik, Rita Lesnik, Milton Pulley, Dana Kern and Jess Frazer.

The game is designed to educate school children, aged 8-12, about the problem of orbital debris, in the hopes of inspiring them to think about how to capture and dispose of it, and get further engaged in STEM and innovation in their futures. The design is built based on educational resources from NASA, and future versions would hope to depict realtime orbital debris from NASA’s datasets.

Having two teenage members on our team who are keen gamers (also our chief developers), we were excited to develop a gaming solution that they would be interested to play.

The Gaming Experience

The game is designed as a VR experience for Oculus Quest. Use voice commands to ask your scrapper buddy, Scrapsie, to take you to a new location or get a different tool from your Scrappack.

Your Scrappack tools are based on current global innovations in the Orbital Debris area.

Your pack includes:

• Harpoon - based on Airbus' titanium harpoon
• Net Blaster - based on the Surrey Space Centre's Remove Debris experiment
• Laser Canon - based on NASA's exploratory work on using lasers to redirect debris
• Balloon Bomb - based on Raytheon BBN Technologies' Space Debris Elimination system
• Space Whip - based on JAXA's electrodynamic tether (EDT)

Rules of the Game

The aim of the game is to capture space junk as it approaches or deflect it towards the Earth so that it burns up below you. Your mission is to protect Earth's satellites and clear the atmosphere of debris. Collect points by successfully capturing or destroying space junk using the tools in your Scrappack. Extra points are awarded for using the most appropriate tool for the size and location of the space debris, and points may be lost if you accidentally create more debris.

Every level begins with a historic satellite collision that resulted in debris. You will see the 'event' happen within the VR experience, and Scrapsie will tell you some facts about the collision. This ensures that you learn as much as you can while 'seeing it with your own eyes' through the engaging VR interface.

For example one level begins with the collision of the Iridium 33 and Kosmos artificial satellites in 2009, which resulted in the release of at least 2251 pieces of orbital debris.

The Technology

The game is built in C# code on Unity, for deployment in Oculus Quest.

We worked with Amazon Alexa to develop new skills to integrate into our game. Michael from last year’s winning Sydney team was a great help in this department.