Space Apps Challenge 2022

Stargazer challenge (regular):

Write a poem, short story, or comic inspired by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) images and data that have been released so far. How do they make you feel? What questions do they answer (or raise)?

Moonwalker challenge (advanced):

There are many free and open-source tools available to help you work with JWST data. Your mission is to create a code tutorial using jupyter notebooks (or something similar) to show people how to use the data. The tutorial must include the following at a minimum.

• How to open and view an image from at least one of the sensors.
• How to create and view a sky map that shows the region that the image covers
• Indicate when the image was acquired.
• How to apply a custom filter to enhance the image.
• How to count the number of galaxies visible in the image using computer vision techniques.
• At least one other feature of your choosing.

Potential considerations

JWST data is new, but it is available in a series of standard data formats (FITS, ASDF, etc…). Take advantage of the tools that already exist to manage these types of data.

Make sure you read the documentation provided, as it will help you better understand the data.

Resources

• JWST Documentation
• Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (JWST data)
• Astropy, a python library for astronomy data
• JDAViz, a tool for visualizing JWST data
• JWST data analysis tools

Key words

Astronomy, telescope, space, James Webb Space Telescope, computer vision, astropy.

Stargazer challenge (regular):

Flex your creativity to educate people about the hazards of space operations and impacts of space on Earth, inspired from CSA datasets. For example, design a board or card game in which the players must develop strategies to protect space assets or critical infrastructure on Earth from the dangers of space.

Moonwalker challenge (advanced):

Programmers unite! Integrate one or more CSA datasets in a creative new way to support education and outreach on space situational awareness (SSA). For example, create a new way to visualize the data or design a computer game in which the players must develop strategies to protect space assets or critical infrastructure on Earth from the dangers of space.

Some fun facts about SSA to consider:

• The Earth's critical infrastructure, the electric power, planes, communications, satellites and GPS enable the economy and quality of life, but can be hampered by space weather and meteorites. For example, geomagnetic storms can disturb power systems as the Earth's magnetic field varies rapidly, increased friction in the upper atmosphere can cause early satellite re-entry and reduce the life of a satellite mission, and GPS scintillations can cause autonomous vehicles to lose GPS tracking.
• Space weather is driven largely by the activity of the sun, by solar winds and how they react with Earth's magnetosphere and different segments of the atmosphere. Increased solar activity can result in a thicker atmosphere increasing the drag acting on satellites. It can also result in more radiation, increasing the chance for electrical components on satellites to be disrupted through what is commonly referred to as Single-Event Upsets (SEUs).
• Other risks come from physical objects both artificial (satellites, debris) and natural (meteoroids, near-Earth asteroids/comets). Collisions in space are catastrophic due to the high speed at which the objects are travelling. Tracking objects can be a challenge, especially for smaller ones, but tracking data can be used by satellite operators to maneuver in order to avoid a collision with another satellite or piece of debris.

Your exciting project can encourage people to be more informed and aware of the potential effects space weather, space debris and near-Earth asteroids & comets can have on their daily lives as well as the various way organizations track and try to mitigate these effects. Check out the "resources" section to see the datasets that may be useful.

Potential considerations

Building a game? Think about building a game that is fun for all. It doesn't need to be exact but the concepts used to build it should be based on facts, making the game a great introduction to space weather, space debris or near-Earth asteroids. Think of ways to represent various space threats and how they will manifest in your game: from a card draw? A dice? A spinner? Based on actual statistics? Based on a real time history?

You could use the SCISAT, CASSIOPE and NEOSSat orbit tracking datasets in relationship to F10.7 data to estimate the impact of space weather on orbit decay. CHAIN data provides GPS scintillation and CARISMA data provides magnetic field variations. CELESTRAK offers satellite conjunction data as well as GPS outage messages.

Try to use as many open source data as possible to design the board, the pieces, the scenarios, and other elements of your game. Present your game and explain how SSA is different from other games and what makes it a good representation of actual space threats.

Resources

• CASSIOPE satellite data on Earth's space environment
• Solar radio flux data
• NEOSSat astronomy data
• SCISAT atmospheric chemistry data

Key words

Space threats, space situational awareness, space weather, satellite debris, radiations

Stargazer challenge (regular):

Make a card, board, or video game to raise awareness around the issue of methane emissions and the Global Methane Pledge. The game should explore different strategies for limiting methane emissions. To be eligible for a prize, the project must reference some CSA materials, though you can use other materials as well.

Moonwalker challenge (advanced):

Using Canada's SCISAT, Europe's Sentinel-5P (S5P) methane data, help develop an integrated picture of global methane emissions. This can be done on a global, national, or regional level – it's up to you!

You can integrate SCISAT's vertical profile methane measurements with S5P's total column measurements. You could also provide recommendations on how to move forward with an integrated space-based methane dataset, in time for the annual review of the Methane Pledge in the Fall of 2022.

Potential considerations

Make sure to explore the "resource" section of this challenge thoroughly. It includes several documents that will help you better understand the data, including some research papers showing how SCISAT data can be used to examine atmospheric methane.

On the CSA's Open Data and Information Portal page titled "Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment data of SCISAT", there is a specific CSV file for methane (titled "Methane"). You will also find the supporting documents to guide you in the process.

Resources

Background information

• Global Methane Pledge
• CSA SCISAT page
• ACE-SCISAT project page
• Sentinel 5-P page
• Two scientific paper examining ACE-SCISAT's atmospheric methane profiles: DeMaziere-MethaneValidation.pdf (scisat.ca), remotesensing-12-00917-v2.pdf (scisat.ca)
• A scientific paper describing atmospheric methane trends as per ACE-SCISAT

Data and data applications

• ACE-SCISAT data and supporting documentation
• Sentinel 5-B data: Sentinel Data Access Overview - Sentinel Online - Sentinel Online (esa.int), https://scihub.copernicus.eu/dhus/
• CSA's SCISAT data exploration application
• Code that was used to create the SCISAT application

Key words

Methane, methane emissions, greenhouse gases, climate change, SCISAT, ACE, vertical profiles, Sentinel-5P, atmospheric chemistry

Stargazer challenge (regular):

OSIRIS-REx's Bennu asteroid sample is essentially a time capsule from the early days of our solar system. By studying it, scientists will be able to gain further insight into how our solar system and planets formed, how water came to Earth, and possibly even the building blocks of life! Complete one of the sub-challenge options below.

• Option 1: Create a comic that tells the story of OSIRIS-REx's journey, and what might await the Bennu sample once it arrives on Earth. What types of things might we discover? How will this affect you and the world at large?
• Option 2: Create your own time capsule, and fill it with things that you think you might find in an early solar system. Tell us the story of your solar system.
• Option 3: If the Bennu sample is a time capsule, draw what you think it might contain. What types of mysteries might it help scientists solve? What does that look like for you?

Moonwalker challenge (advanced):

OSIRIS-REx carries a Canadian laser altimeter called OLA, which was used to create a 3D map of the surface of asteroid Bennu, allowing scientists to select the safest and most interesting spot for it to collect its sample. Using the OLA data and products provided and what you know about the mission's priorities, can you choose the best sampling site for OSIRIS-REx? Make sure to explain why you chose that site.

Potential considerations

OLA data might be novel, but it is essentially a lidar point cloud dataset. There are many free and open source tools that can help you work with lidar point clouds (see "resources"), so there is no need to reinvent the wheel.

As always, make sure you read the documentation thoroughly.

Resources

• OSIRIS-REx data and documentation: Open data and information Portal (asc-csa.gc.ca), Index of data
• OSIRIS-REx main documentation: Data Product Software Interface Specifications
• OSIRIS-REx additional documentation:
  • The OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter (OLA) Investigation
  • SPICE Concept (nasa.gov)
  • PDS: PDS4 Training (nasa.gov)
• QGIS geospatial software: Welcome to the QGIS project!, How to handle point clouds in QGIS 3.18? – Gispo

Python libraries

• PDS4 format manipulation PDS4 Python Tools - User Manual — PDS4 Python Tools 1.3 documentation (umd.edu), Python PDS4 Tools - The SBN Wiki (umd.edu)
• Open3D Point Cloud: Open3D – A Modern Library for 3D Data Processing 
• PDAL (Point Cloud Manipulation): PDAL - Point Data Abstraction Library — pdal.io

Key words

OSIRIS-REx, lidar, 3D point cloud, digital elevation model, interpolation, space exploration