Summary

In the distant future, space tourism will likely be routine for Earth dwellers, but space travelers will need help choosing a destination and determining an itinerary. Imagine you are a travel agent at a future space tourism office. Your challenge is to create a tool that will not only develop customized itineraries for future travelers who want to visit the main bodies in our solar system—perhaps Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn—but also educate present-day users about the many different objects in our solar system.

Background

In the distant future, space tourism will likely be routine for Earth dwellers. Future space travelers might board a rocket, perhaps stay a day or two on an Earth-orbiting space station, and then transition to a deep-space-liner to travel to the Moon, Mars, or more distant worlds. It will be a long voyage, but the sights will be outstanding!

In the present day, NASA is expanding our understanding and knowledge of the solar system by exploring with spacecraft and telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This information will form the basis for further exploration and research, eventually leading to space colonization and eventually tourism.

Objective

Imagine you are a travel agent at a future space tourism office. Your challenge is to develop a tool to create customized itineraries for future travelers who want to visit the main bodies in the solar system—perhaps Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn. Most importantly, however, your tool will enable present-day users to learn about planets and other objects in our solar system while participating in a fun, role-playing, space tourism game!

Think about how you can expand users’ interest in and knowledge of NASA’s exploration of our solar system. How can your tool employ NASA images and information (and perhaps data from other countries’ missions and space probes) in a fun and educational way to help users determine their “travel itineraries?”

Maybe your tool (perhaps a website, or other similar selection mechanism) could allow travelers to browse various destinations and choose which highlights to see on different worlds. For example, space tourists planning a visit to Mars could visit Olympus Mons, the tallest mountain in the solar system; Valles Marineris, the largest and deepest valley; and even the landing sites of historic NASA missions such as Viking and Sojourner.

Don’t forget that your customers will need a final itinerary showing which sites will be visited on each day, how they will travel between sites (use your imagination!), some information about each site, and even some tips on what to bring and wear.

Potential Considerations

You may (but are not required to) consider the following when creating your solution to this challenge:

The scope, implementation method, and complexity of the tool you develop is at your discretion. Your tool could be elaborate or simple. For example, you could even develop a travel brochure that does not require an interactive website. We look forward to seeing how you solve this challenge!

For data and resources related to this challenge, refer to the Resources tab at the top of the page.

2023 NASA Space Apps Challenge

Planetary Tourism Office