Project Details

The Challenge | Orbital Scrap Metal — The Video Game

Nuts, bolts, spent rocket stages, and broken pieces of satellites orbiting Earth are just a few of the many thousands of items known as orbital debris, or space junk. Your challenge is to create an orbital debris collection videogame web-app! You may build upon NASA’s Spacebirds and real data.

Trashtronaut

It is a 2D video game that educates users about space debris problem

Wendiwei

The project is a 2D video game that aims to educate people about the space debris problem, the different types of space debris, and how to collect and dispose them properly.

The game starts at a space recycling station where the player will be oriented about the game's objective and mechanics.

The player maneuvers the spacecraft to collect space debris and avoid collision with active satellites and other natural space debris (e.g. meteors). Coins are earned for every debris collected. Coins are deducted if the spacecraft collides with a natural space object, and the game will be over if it collides with an active satellite.

The position of the space objects will be based on the NASA Spacebird app data.

As the game progresses, the volume and velocity will increase thus making the navigation challenging. Another challenge element is the limited capacity of the spacecraft collector. If the maximum level is reached, the player has to upgrade his ship by purchasing a higher capacity spacecraft using the coins earned from collecting debris. If the player has insufficient coins, he can go to the recycling station to unload and exchange the debris he had collected for coins. He can then continue collecting more debris and recycling until he has sufficient coins to upgrade his spacecraft.

The player can also buy power-up tools such as space balloons, nets, janitor satellites, etc. that could help the spacecraft collect debris.