Asteroid Hackathon

Saturday, October 25
San Francisco Bay Area

For designers, engineers, and citizen scientists interested in saving our planet by tackling asteroid data.

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Thurs Oct 23 Hackathon Updates!  

1) The main event is almost here! The Asteroid Hackathon -- 8:30 AM - 6:300 PM SETI Institute, 189 N Bernando Ave, Mountain View, CA 94034. Plenty of parking.

2) Hack room. Our new SETI partners are great. Super helpful crew. However, the space is a bit tighter than the prior scheduled venue. Prepare to work in somewhat tight quarters. Bringing extra internet hotspotswouldn't be a bad idea either. We'll have plenty of eats, drinks, and hack supplies to make it fun.

3) Asterank! More idea fodder for you. Asterank was created by Ian Webster (one of our judges!). We don't expect you to create something to this scale, but check it out, very cool. It was created on top of the Minor Planet Center data. Read more about it here: http://www.asterank.com/about.

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Tue Oct 21 Hackathon Updates! 

1) Ideas. Still exploring inspiration? Check out the results of the Asteroid Design Jam we did in August as a practice run-up for this Asteroid Hackathon. It was ideas only (with data only as inspiration). Hitch a ride on an asteroid!

2) Guidance. If you've had a chance to look, you'll know that the asteroid dataset is not classic BIG DATA. Our challenge is more of doing something interesting and informative with the data that we do have (or don't have! which is also part of our asteroid challenge). That's partly why this is a DESIGN & development hackathon.

3) More Data! The SETI Institute has provided some supplemental data to play with. (We really like these guys!) The Minor Planet Center data is still the primary dataset, but more the merrier.

• DAMIT 3D models. DAMIT is a database of hundreds of asteroid models, and also some other information about the asteroids. When browsing for asteroids, you're going to want to download the OBJ files, since those are readily importable. The PNG links provide a visual overview. A description of the other sorts of information to be found at the site. http://astro.troja.mff.cuni.cz/projects/asteroids3D/web.php?page=db\_browse.

• RADAR 3D models are a small collection of asteroid models, generated by a different technique. The actual model files are in OBJ format and can be found by going through "Browse" and then "data" links on the site. http://sbn.psi.edu/pds/resource/rshape.html

• VOBAD is a downloadable database of multiple asteroid systems. http://www.franckmarchis.com/DATA/PHP_scripts/VOBAD/BinaryDB_php.zip

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Mon Oct 20 Hackathon Updates! 

1) Data Documentation: A key link didn't make yesterday's email! Documentation, format, and meaning for the asteroid data can be seen here: http://minorplanetcenter.net/web_service. We will also be updating the Eventbrite.  

Sun Oct 19 Hackathon Updates 

1) The DATA! It's here (SQL) here (CSV), and here (JSON). Web Service API page for explanations of what each parameter represents. We encourage you and your team to dive in and get to hacking! Design, development, storyboarding, etc. Whatever you'd like to go about building before next Saturday, October 25. All is fair game.
 
2) NEW VENUE! The hackathon will now be taking place at the SETI Institute (189 North Bernardo Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043). All other event details remain the same.

3) Let's Chat! We've setup a Reddit subreddit for the Asteroid Hackathon called hack_space. It'll primarily be for the community to talk with one another and post related links. We'll jump in from time to time as we can to answer questions and update the sticky post. But it will be lightly moderated as we're mostly focused on next weekend!

Tue Oct 15 Hackathon Updates

A couple of announcements as the Asteroid Hackathon is fast approaching. Please read below. And see further below for full event details.

1) Please register your team and all your teammates. We realize Eventbrite isn’t the best at group signup, but try these steps below:

• One person Creates a team. The others join by searching for the team name the first person created. If you need assistance, please email hackspace@echouser.com.
• Signup your team at ChallengePost. We will be using ChallengePost to host your work for judging, and for a permanent record of what we achieved at the hackathon. You can enter all your teammates there in lieu of the Eventbrite.
• If you still need teammates, we can try to match you with good folks looking for the same. Email us at hackspace@echouser.com.

2) Friday Oct 24 reception happy hour in San Francisco. Enjoy drinks and appetizers, asteroid q&a as needed, and otherwise mentally prep for the next day’s Asteroid Hackathon. 6:00 - 8:30 PM, 115 Sansome St., Floor 7, San Francisco, CA 94104.

Detailed information on EchoUser's blog and our ChallengePost hackthon page  

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The Grand Challenge

Calling all enthusiasts and data junkies: This is your chance to hack space! Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to save the earth with good design, neat engineering solutions, and asteroid data. Do you have what it takes to rise to the occasion? 

EchoUser, in partnership with SpaceGAMBIT, Maui Makers, the Minor Planet Center, NASA, the SETI Institute, and Further by Design, is hosting an Asteroid Hackathon. The event is in response to the NASA Grand Challenge, “focused on finding all asteroid threats to human populations and knowing what to do about them.”

The Data

THE official data storage set is being provided by the Minor Planet Center.

Hackathon Challenge

Help engage astronomers, space nerds, and the general public. Make our planet safer by re-imagining asteroid data. 

The Team

Teams will be 3 to 5 people. Each team must include at least one designer/user experience expert, one engineer/developer, and one citizen scientist; i.e. you like space :)

Timeframe

• Sign up now. Let us know who you are and a bit about your team.
• About 7 days before the event we will provide all registered teams with sample data. (As an early hint, this is not a "big data" problem. Yes, there is a lot of data, but this challenge is more about how you will organize and present information).
• Friday, October 24, 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM will be a welcome happy hour at EchoUser's office at 115 Sansome St., San Francisco, CA 94104.
• Saturday, Octover 25, 8:30 AM - 7:00 PM will be the main event, the Asteroid Hackathon.

Still Need Convincing...

Full event details are availble on EchoUser's website.

Hear from the experts and see what our lead astronomer and engineer have to say about space hacking and the upcoming Asteroid Hackathon.

See what we've done so far and find out how our practice run (#spacejam) of the Asteroid Hackathon went! 

Read our proposal and see the other SPACEgambit fundees.