NASA Space Apps Challenge
A global hackathon hosted by NASA and partner space agencies.
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Be your inner astronaut
Shelter in Space
The Shelter in Space app integrates with existing wellness, self-improvement, and social connection apps to create an immersive, gamified virtual analog mission scenario while providing citizen science data for COVID19 and Human Space Flight research.
NASA Space Apps Challenege Project
Best Mission Concept
Shelter in Space received the global Best Mission Concept award for the solution with the most plausible solution concept and design.
The Isolation Solution
Develop innovative solutions to combat social isolation due to COVID-19.
Video Overview
Summary
Shelter in Space transforms users into citizen-scientists embarking on an exciting virtual analog mission that will help them beat isolation and connect with a community of fellow explorers.
By applying HFBP research, the app offers tools to monitor and improve mental and physical wellness, and get support from virtual analog crewmates, astronauts, and space experts.
Users pick a virtual mission that determines commitment level and challenge activities and opt in to provide data to NASA-informed research goals.
Interactive Prototype
Team
Orestis Herodotou 
Scott Coffin How We Addressed This Challenge
What is it?
Shelter in Space is an engaging and fun smartphone-based app that integrates with existing wellness, self-improvement, and social connection apps to create an immersive, gamified space mission scenario while providing citizen science data for COVID-19 and human spaceflight research.
Why is it important?
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, at least 4.5 billion people were living under social distancing measures worldwide, triggering a wide variety of psychological problems such as panic disorder, anxiety, and depression.
Shelter in Space is a gamified mental and physical health countermeasure application using widely available technologies to help users fulfill a sense of belonging and purpose, and positive social interaction.
Prolonged isolation and confinement of astronauts in human space missions and citizens practicing social distancing measures are linked to adverse behavioral and physical conditions, including insomnia, anxiety disorders, and depression. Early detection and prevention of isolation-induced adverse conditions are critical to mission success.
Shelter in Space encourages users to link sleep diagnostic apps and provides adaptive countermeasures based on severity of disorder and possible disrupting factors, based on NASA countermeasure guidelines. It also focuses on meal planning and nutrition-based recommendations, using NASA nutrition analysis tools and integrations with popular online applications.
What does it do?
- A gamified experience that provides users with organizational and wellness tools that consider human capabilities and limitations through identification of causal factors.
- A social connection app which encourages interpersonal connection, collaboration, and support through virtual means.
- An improvement app that facilitates learning and exploration of NASA and STEAM-related subject matters to improve mental and physical health while learning about NASA’s and other space agencies’ space programs.
- A crowd-sourced citizen science data project which provides objective health measures and subjective user feedback to improve social isolation guidance for NASA.
Meaningful Gamification
Ensuring long-term engagement and personal connections
External motivation in the form of reward-based gamification encourages immediate, short-term behavioral changes. Long-term behavioral modifications can be adopted through intrinsic motivation, developed through meaningful gamification. Shelter in Space uses game design elements to encourage mastery of social isolation countermeasures so external rewards are no longer necessary for continued use.
Play
Users have the freedom to explore and fail within boundaries through collaborative, space-themed mission-specific STEM challenges.
Exposition
Space-themed mission narratives are integrated with real-world settings and unique parallels between COVID-19-related social isolation / confinement conditions and space travel.
Choice and Reward
Users design their own missions, form crews, and make decisions regarding mission objectives, resulting in rewards such as level increases, unlocking special events, and the ultimate reward: a real-life phone call to astronauts on the International Space Station.
Information
Space-themed game design is based on real space mission data, NASA Human Research Program countermeasure protocols, and real-time local and global COVID-19 health data and guidelines.
Engagement
Users discover and learn from other crew members and real astronauts through prompts, communication reminders, check-ins, virtual live special events, and chat rooms.
Reflection
Users are encouraged to reflect on progress through daily mission briefings, health dashboard notifications, and diary log prompts.
Citizen Science
Crowd-sourced data to support human spaceflight
NASA has long used software-based measurement of behavioral health indicators such as mood, cognitive function, fatigue, and sleep quality to mitigate effects of prolonged isolation and confinement using in-space and ground-based analog facilities.
Further research is needed to identify and validate countermeasures that promote behavioral health and performance during interplanetary missions. Large datasets with diverse cohorts and objective behavioral measures are needed to develop personalized countermeasures.
The COVID-19 pandemic created a widespread need for science and technology-based guidance while also creating an unprecedented research opportunity: enrolling global citizens in ground-based analog missions as citizen scientists.
Shelter in Space unobtrusively collects objective physiological, neurological, and behavioral health metrics in combination with a machine learning A/B platform to customize countermeasures that reduce risks from adverse cognitive and behavioral effects induced by social isolation and confinement.
What do we hope to achieve?
The scale and impact of COVID-19 created unprecedented challenges for billions of people. Human space travel and exploration represents the pinnacle of human creativity and the ability to solve complex problems through unbounded collaboration and curiosity. Shelter in Space aimed to share that optimism and ingenuity widely, helping people explore their inner astronaut while re-envisioning a more resilient and sustainable relationship to Spaceship Earth.
How does it work?
Transform yourself into a virtual analog astronaut
1. Choose your Mission
- Pick a mission based on a real space mission to Mars, the Moon, the ISS, or even Europa.
- Each mission has unique commitment levels, science-based challenges, relevant Earth observation and space-based data sources, and collaborative user experiences.
2. Form your Crew
- Invite other crew members and/or get matched.
- Maintain relationships through daily video chats and weekly crew member check-ins.
- Integrate with popular social apps such as Zoom, Houseparty, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram.
- Collect, analyze, and discuss metrics on communication and cohesion.
- Gain support and accountability by sharing and discussing objectives with crew members.
- Make new relationships through chat rooms and virtual events.
- Receive NASA-informed psychosocial health tips.
3. Optimize your Reality
- Connect to popular physical, nutritional, mental integrity, educational, and wellness apps and trackers such as Headspace, Coursera, Khan Academy, FitBit, SleepCycle, and MyFitnessPal.
- Integrate health-based metrics such as sleep quality / quantity, body temperature, caloric intake / nutrition, resting heart rate, and active heart rate into a live health dashboard.
- Complete NASA tests such as the psychomotor vigilance self test to assess cognitive performance.
- Hit goals to progress the mission, with in-app and real-world rewards encouraging users.
- Receive video messages from analog and real astronauts, plus problem-solving guidance from scientists, engineers, and space agency / community employees.
4. View the World like an Astronaut
- Develop an overview-effect perspective of Earth through real-time imagery from satellites, the International Space Station, extra-terrestrial rovers, and astronomy telescopes.
- Interact with content and campaigns that encourage exploration of Earth and space science topics.
- Receive global-scale updates including COVID-19 news and data, NASA news, hurricanes, eclipses, wildfires, climate change impacts, and other planetary phenomena.
- Receive daily updates and challenges triggered by real-time mission objectives and parameters from the InSight mission to Mars, including weather, atmospheric levels, and photos.
5. Complete your Mission
- Complete bonus science, technology, engineering, art, and math challenges to progress the mission or maintain the space station.
- Cooperate and collaborate as a team; mission success depends on it.
- View metrics and reports to identify problem areas and celebrate progress.
- See contributions as a citizen scientist.
Future plans included expanding content campaigns, integrations, machine-learning-powered AI to help users identify trends in their data, new missions, educational modules, space-based data sources, mini-games, and partnerships that bring the experience outside the app.
How We Developed This Project
One team member was doing a personal analog mission while the project was created, living like an astronaut in complete isolation for 30 days under shelter-in-place rules from inside a geodesic dome built with up-cycled sail material.
The team used NASA’s Human Research Roadmap to identify hazards, countermeasures, and knowledge gaps related to social isolation and physical confinement in analog and space missions. Google Scholar helped characterize psychological risks associated with COVID-19 isolation and confinement.
The project evaluated existing tools for video chat, social networking, health monitoring, wellness, and learning, then integrated validated apps into a unified space-themed experience that encouraged social collaboration, mental and physical health, and crowd-sourced data for space agencies.
The prototype used Framer, Figma, JavaScript, JSON, REST HTTP APIs, and NASA Open APIs, with real space data such as Mars InSight weather, daily astronomy photos, and satellite imagery used to trigger prompts, challenges, and imagination.
The team also experienced emotional, psychological, and physical distress from nearby violent protests related to race-based societal injustices while working through the project.
Data & Resources Citations
- Binges, David (2019). Standardized Behavioral Measures for Detecting Behavioral Health Risks during Exploration Missions. https://humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov/Tasks/task.aspx?i=1623
- Schneider, Stefan et al. (2010). Exercise as a countermeasure to psycho-physiological deconditioning during long-term confinement. Behavioural Brain Research. 211. 208-14. 10.1016/j.bbr.2010.03.034.
- CBS-BMed1: We need to identify and validate countermeasures that promote individual behavioral health and performance during exploration class missions. https://humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov/Gaps/gap.aspx?i=393
- Development and Testing of Biomarkers to Determine Individual Astronaut Vulnerabilities to Behavioral Health Disruptions (NNX14AK53G). https://lsda.jsc.nasa.gov/Experiment/exper/13586
- Raphael D. Rose (2014). Self-guided multimedia stress management and resilience training, The Journal of Positive Psychology, 9:6, 489-493. DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2014.927907
- Basner M, Mollicone D, Dinges DF. Validity and sensitivity of a brief psychomotor vigilance test (PVT-B) to total and partial sleep deprivation. Acta Astronautica. 2011; 69(11-12): 949-959.
- Mars Rover Photos API. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. API-105. https://data.nasa.gov/Space-Science/Mars-Rover-Photos-API/929k-jizu
- Mars exploration image gallery. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/images/index.html
- Douglas, A. Psychology of Space Exploration. National Aeronautics and Space Administration 9.780160 (2011): 883583.
- Hagerty, Bonnie M., et al. Sense of belonging and indicators of social and psychological functioning. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing 10.4 (1996): 235-244.
- Global COVID-19 Lockdown Tracker. Aura Vision. https://auravision.ai/covid19-lockdown-tracker/. Accessed May 31, 2020.
- BBC News. Coronavirus pandemic: Tracking the global outbreak. Accessed May 31, 2020.
- Qiu, Jianyin, et al. A nationwide survey of psychological distress among Chinese people in the COVID-19 epidemic. General Psychiatry 33.2 (2020).
- Oe, Hiroko. Discussion of digital gaming’s impact on players’ well-being during the COVID-19 lockdown. arXiv:2005.00594 (2020).
- CBS-BMed6: We need to identify and validate effective treatments for adverse behavioral conditions and psychiatric disorders during exploration class missions. https://humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov/gaps/gap.aspx?i=400
- NASA. Evidence Report: Risk of Adverse Cognitive or Behavioral Conditions and Psychiatric Disorders (2016). https://humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov/Evidence/reports/BMed.pdf
- Colton HR, Altevogt BM (Eds.) (2006). Sleep disorders and sleep deprivation: An unmet public health problem. National Academies Press.
- Livingston G, Blizard B, Mann A (1993). Does sleep disturbance predict depression in elderly people? British Journal of General Practice, 43:445-448.
- Zhou, Xiaoyun, et al. The role of telehealth in reducing the mental health burden from COVID-19. Telemedicine and e-Health 26.4 (2020): 377-379.
- Stuster J (1996). Bold Endeavors: Lessons from Polar and Space Exploration. Naval Institute Press.
- John F. Kennedy Space Center Health Education & Wellness Program. Nutrition Analysis Tools. https://hewp.ksc.nasa.gov/Analysis%20Tools
- Nicholson, S. (2015). A RECIPE for Meaningful Gamification. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-10208-5_1
- Deci, E. and Ryan, R. (2004). Handbook of Self-Determination Research. University of Rochester Press.
- Kanas, N., et al. Psychology and culture during long-duration space missions. Acta Astronautica 64.7-8 (2009): 659-677.
- NASA Human Research Roadmap. https://humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov/
Tags
#SocialIsolation #Game #AnalogMission #CrowdSource #MachineLearning #ImprovementApp #CitizenScience #SocialConnectionApp #SpaceMissionSimulator
Original Challenege Prompt
The Challenge
Social distancing policies enacted the world over during the COVID-19 pandemic have left many people socially isolated. Your challenge is to develop innovative solutions to combat social isolation.
In an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19, many people around the world have engaged in prolonged social isolation over the past several months. With social isolation defined as the absence of, or reduction in social contact with others, long-duration spaceflight may offer a relevant parallel to the multidimensional nature of reduced or absent social contact, and the psychological underpinnings for the associated risk factors.
NASA astronauts are trained to live and work in the isolation of space, and other types of NASA professionals have experience enduring social isolation as well. Oceanographers and cryospheric researchers can spend months on ships or at remote locations conducting research. Terrestrial scientists can also spend weeks or months isolated in the study of local biology, ecosystems, or field work.
For some professionals, social distancing is a normal practice, but for countless people, the experience of isolation is a new and perhaps challenging experience.
Even before COVID-19, it was recognized that prolonged social isolation can adversely impact our health and well-being. This is particularly true for the aging members of our society. And now, social distancing policies enacted around the globe during the COVID-19 pandemic have produced socially isolated circumstances for countless individuals. This isolation and confinement can also increase the risk of depression, self-harm, self-neglecting behavior, and decline in cognitive functioning.
Technological breakthroughs in the field of social isolation could allow researchers and implementors of these innovations to better understand, characterize and reduce the risks associated with social isolation, as well as leverage these insights to reduce the risk associated with social isolation on long-duration spaceflight and for other remote research locations.
Quarantine-related policies have led to many types of new social adaptations and activities as well. In some cases, social distancing may have had the opposite effect of bringing families, groups, and individuals closer together socially, whether because of stay-at-home policies or technological adaptations such as video conferencing and teleworking.
Your challenge is to develop innovative solutions to combat social isolation. What ideas and innovative technological approaches to reduce social isolation and increase the sense of social connection among members of our society can you design? How can you turn some of the realities of quarantine into a positive experience for yourself and others?
Considerations
- Think as broadly as you like for this challenge. Your approach might include mental health solutions and/or practical solutions for practicing social distancing, but you are not limited to these themes.
- How might the strategies you identify benefit members of society in isolation, reducing the risks associated with social isolation, and also offer insights into countermeasure development for astronauts on long-duration spaceflight?
- Remember that to be eligible for global judging by our panel of Space Apps experts, your solution to the challenge must contain or reference NASA, ESA, JAXA, CSA, or CNES, or other space agency, data in some way.
- How do the insights of space agency professionals compare with your own observations? How have your observations informed your solution?