Last weekend, NASA gathered together more than 9,000 people from 44 countries for what was dubbed the "largest hackathon" ever. Some 83 hours later, NASA called time and checked out the results.
The projects that materialized turned out to be as brilliant and varied as their creators. Over 750 projects ended up being submitted in 58 different categories. Here are a few of the highlights:
Popeye on Mars: A reusable spinach greenhouse, meant to be deployed on Mars. For 45 days at a time, this little beauty can cultivate not only healthy greens, but the oxygen the plants create as well.
NEO Database: A visualization of approximately 600,000 catalogued asteroids with analysis of their economic prospects. This visually stunning app was among the four virtual winners of the contest.
REPROV Wheel:A self-replicating rover set to take over the vast planes of Mars. If humanity can't make Mars our own, we'll at least be able to establish rover herds.
Waystation: A GPS-based tracking system that notifies people when the ISS is visible from their location. They can then send pictures and tweets to not only the ISS astronauts, but the rest of the world. There's even a tracker function that allows folks from all over the globe to see how often a certain country has spotted the ISS.
There were plenty of other wonderful projects created during the contest. To check them all out, head on over to the Space Apps Challengewebsite. With such a varied field of solutions being created virtually overnight, the future is looking brighter by the minute.
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