NASA reports that the topic of the annual NASA International Space Apps Challenge (hackathon) will be “The Sun Touches Everything”, i.e. the challenges will be dedicated to our luminary and its impact on the Earth. Registration for the event will begin July 18.
What the NASA International Space Apps Challenge will be about
NASA officials have announced that the topic of the current NASA International Space Apps Challenge, better known as the NASA International Hackathon, will be “The Sun Touches Everything.” This is because the heliophysics department of this organization has declared the period from October 2023 to December 2024 to be the “Helio Big Year.”
This program aims to engage a wide range of science enthusiasts in the exploration of our luminary. Every week there is some kind of event that anyone can join.
For example, in the week beginning June 24, everyone is invited to share the Sun-themed presentation they are most inspired by. After another week, participants are invited to introduce their work related to our luminary. And then everyone is encouraged to test their knowledge of it with a special app with tests.
However, the most important is still the hackathon. This is a really important event that many participants from all over the world look forward to every year. And now it has been revealed that registration will open from July 18.
What makes the NASA Hackathon so important
NASA International Space Apps Challenge has been held since 2012. And the most important thing about it is that it is international, i.e. people from any country can take part in it. And since the challenges it presents to the teams are part of the real-world problems the space agency is working on, the event is the best way for the casual science enthusiast to get involved in the exploration of our Solar System.
Predominantly, the developments presented by the participants concern a software product. Although from time to time they present their developments in robotics or even biology. Ukraine has already participated in the NASA International Space Apps Challenge seven times and this experience can be firmly considered a positive one.
In 2016, Ukrainian engineers presented a project of a jumping and flying Martian robot Mars Hopper, which won one of the main prizes of the hackathon. Participants from our country then managed to visit the launch of the OSIRIS-REx mission.
And last year, in 2023, the Storm Prophet team from Ukraine became the best in the Best Use of Data category. By the way, at that time their development was just about the Sun. They created a program that processed data from the satellite to study high-energy particles flying from our luminary.
