NASA is making a call out to anyone who wants to code a space app.
That’s right: Space Apps Toronto 2014 is preparing for “launch”, and registration is now open for the NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2014. It’s a a global hackathon aimed at making space data fascinating, relevant and empowering.
On April 11-13, 150 developers, makers, engineers and entrepreneurs will attack 25 NASA-designed challenges, coming up with solutions “silly to serious, fantastical to feasible.”
“Build a team, pick a challenge, and leverage your access to a extraordinary mentors roster featuring past and present astronauts, aerospace engineers, and designers.”
According to the event organizers, NASA gathers close to 1 GB of data about the universe every second, and they want to put it to good use.
Space Apps teams will choose from a wide selection of meaningful and important problems NASA is looking to address. Challenges are organized across four categories – Software, Hardware, Visualization, and Citizen Science. Solutions that are not practical must compensate with creativity, and may take the form of concept work, prototypes, or polished applications.
All participants will have access to a mentor roster of past and present astronauts, planetary scientists, and experts from Canada’s top aerospace companies. Meanwhile, all participants will get to join in a bit of fun before and after the hackathon, over food and beer.
The hackathon is also being organized in tandem with the Youth Space Challenge, a kids version of the adult hackathon. The Youth Space Challenge details will be announced soon, but participants of the adult hackathon will be encouraged to take breaks and head over to the Youth challenge to mentor some of the young Einsteins.