iona Cassidys method

There is a great deal of interest from national space agencies to go to the Moon and Mars. ESA wants to go to the Moon and establish a village there. NASA wants to go to Mars. Astronauts and Cosmonauts from all over the world are already living aboard the ISS. What can they do in their free time? It can’t be all about reading books or game play on computers. Think of new sports or games that could take into account the low gravity (e.g. a space lacrosse game, extreme basketball). What about real or virtual experiences involving the Apollo 11 landing site on the Moon? Or following the paths of Sojourner, Spirit or Curiosity on Mars using a form of cross-country skiing? Think of new ways for to astronauts to use their free time. To present your results develop an app that makes use of virtual reality tools.

Our Solution

THE CHALLENGE: SPACE RECREATION

JOURNEY TO MARS

There is a great deal of interest from national space agencies to go to the Moon and Mars. ESA wants to go to the Moon and establish a village there. NASA wants to go to Mars. Astronauts and Cosmonauts from all over the world are already living aboard the ISS. What can they do in their free time? It can’t be all about reading books or game play on computers. Think of new sports or games that could take into account the low gravity (e.g. a space lacrosse game, extreme basketball). What about real or virtual experiences involving the Apollo 11 landing site on the Moon? Or following the paths of Sojourner, Spirit or Curiosity on Mars using a form of cross-country skiing? Think of new ways for to astronauts to use their free time. To present your results develop an app that makes use of virtual reality tools.

EXPLANATION

The game we have created is called Watorb. It looks like a plastic sphere that has a lot of small holes in it and a small clock on the front. It is an electronic sphere that shoots little droplets of water/ plastic pellets from its little holes. It would not necessarily need to float- it could be mounted on a stick. The game is that it shoots a little drop of water (or plastic pellet) from its holes, and the astronauts try to catch the water in their mouth, or they try to catch the pellet in their hand. They have exactly one minute to do this, and the clock on the front of the Watorbcounts down from one minute. If the water or pellet is caught, theWatorb shoots out two pellets or drops to be caught. This is designed for one-person playing, but it could be adapted to a multiplayer mode where the Watorb only shoots one drop/ pellet at a time and does not up the amount and teams compete to catch the most water/ pellets.

RESOURCES USED

PlasticsElectronicsSmall Digital ClockWater/ Plastic PelletsWooden Stick (if necessary: ie- it isn't floating