Space Walk

Explore the Solar System by Walking IRL

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Inspiration

When we heard the theme "exploration", we almost immediately thought of what it would be like to explore the scale of the solar system. There are many, many visualizations that already do this, and there are "solar system walks" that try to show the true scale of the solar system, so we thought, what if we combined these two ideas. We decided to attempt to make: Space Walk

What it does

Space Walk is an app that will track the distance you have walked since first download (once you sign up, verify your email and log in of course). Every time you open the app, it will update your progress through different checkpoints of distances in the solar system with the distance that you have traveled since you last opened the app (by looking at the users health app). It currently has 26 checkpoints to reach, from the highest human jump all the way to Jupiter. Each planet (and the moon) represents a level that a user gets. Given an average of 150 minutes of exercise per week (Per CDC recommendations) and the average human walking speed of 3-4 mph, we calculated the distance the average person should walk in 6 months to stay physically active. We then set 6 months as the amount of time it should take an average user to get to reach Jupiter.

Additionally, we designed a model of a phone holder for users who want to attach their phone to their belt or pants. This better allows users to make use of the Space Walk app and get exercise. The model is only CAD currently as there are no resources available for us to easily print/make this.

How we built it

We had 4 major areas of the project Front End We decided to use swift as it is a go-to programming language for programming ios apps, however, no one on our team has had much experience with swift. Back End Our backend is entirely python running a Flask server with MongoDB Passwords are hashed and authentication is relatively secure CAD All CAD was done in Inventor Math All calculations were done through excel. Initial distances and data were collected from NASA and other reputable sources

Challenges we ran into

  • Finding a easy, consistent, yet appealing art style, fonts, and colors
  • Finding a way to give the user consistent checkpoints while also attempting to stay true to our vision of making the user experience the scale of the universe
  • Only having a single Mac for main front end development

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  1. Robust backend to safely store user data
  2. hashing
  3. public and private users (which will later be used for leaderboard system)
  4. using as limited of user data as possible (defined in plist)
  5. Artwork and Design
  6. Having a simple aesthetic art style
  7. Having a solid idea and sticking with it
  8. Learning Swift in 2 days

What we learned

  • Swift
  • IOS development
  • Flask Servers
  • MongoDB
  • Backend Development
  • Hashing
  • API requests
  • HTTP requests
  • Krita all things art

What's next for Space Walk

We want to expand Space Walk to include the following features:

  • Add Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, interstellar space, Voyager 2, and Voyager 1
  • A leaderboard with the users who have traveled the farthest
  • Being able to connect with friends and see their progress in your app
  • To be able to set goals for yourself, where you try and accomplish certain tasks by a certain time
  • sprucing up the UI for the login and register pages to match artwork of main display
  • display fun facts for each planet you pass to display the idea of exploration!

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