NASA sponsors worldwide hackathon
NASA is kicking off a worldwide hackathon this weekend, with teams of citizens competing to create software, hardware and mobile and web applications that will solve problems and improve life on Earth and in space.
As part of the second-ever International Space Apps Challenge, NASA has released 50 wide-ranging problems to be tackled during the 48-hour event.
Some groups will be drawing up a conceptual design for a space greenhouse that could be used to grow food during manned missions to the moon and Mars. Others will be creating an app for stargazers to trace the location, color and size of meteors. Still, more will be making Lego rovers that can be remotely controlled by computers or smartphones, while other teams compete to create the best airport-simulating gaming app that uses crowdsourcing to get better ideas for air traffic management and reduce pesky flight delays.
