This project is solving the Reach For the Stars challenge.
Synopsis
Go for IT [IT stands for Interstellar Travel, you know] will be a web-based game, with extension apps for OS and Android Systems. It will be mainly oriented for kids, from 4 to almost 40 years [just like me!] and older.
This game will runs over a real time simulation of our Solar System, with accurate and precise data gathered from existent scientific data mining, and that it going to be updated periodically.
As a work premise, when we will have the complete capability of reach a near star, for instance Alpha Centauri, in about 100 years or less, there should be a high likelihood that we have developed our Solar System before.
This game will be about the technology and infrastructures required to the complete development of the Solar System, helping our civilization to reach a sustainable Kardashev I Level, transforming it into a wealthy Kardashev II Level society by unlocking the vast resources that surround us, and preparing us to achieve Kardashev III Level, being a mature civilization capable of Interstellar Travel.
Objectives
• It will inspire young people to cultivate their interests in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (S.T.E.M).
• It will be a real time simulation, according to the most accurate and precise scientific data, providing a dynamic and zoom-able view of our Solar System.
• It will offer the design and build of infrastructures required for bootstrap the space industry.
• It will be a platform for crowd-sourcing data analysis, and test validation of celestial bodies’ motion and gravitational models, and planetary mechanics theories in general.
Modules / Stages
• You are here (learning module): a comprehensive three dimensional map, showing a dynamic view of our position in the Solar System, scalable to the Sun’s Stellar Neighborhood, and to the whole Milky Way Galaxy. Our kids and all of us need to see the true sense and scale of our anthropocentric point of view. This feature will be the first to be developed.
• We can do it (gaming module): dream and play, design and build a simulation of the bases, logistics, facilities, and outposts required for complete development, and colonization of our Solar System.
Players / Roles
• Learners: geared for kids and public in general. They will find a highly visual and comprehensive tool to explore the Solar System and learn everything that they want about it.
• Thinkers: this role is for innovative like-minded players that wants to design the game, improving it, adding complexity and visualizing obstacles to tackle.
• Doers: frequent and advanced players that build the required infrastructures.
The game
Go For IT will be an online (in the Cloud) open-ended Game that can be played as single-player, for Learners in the “You are here” module, and also for Thinkers, or played as multi-player in the “We can do it” module, resulting in a virtual competition among Doers. However, there will be different levels of Doers.
In the first level, a Doer player will be acting as a crew-member of a team that is responsible for the correct performing of research task and the optimum maintaining and operation of machines and instruments on board of predefined facilities such as orbital stations and traveling Interplanetary Spaceships for Cargo and transport of passengers, or conducting the same tasks in a reliable way for a determined period of time in a Moon Base, a Martian Settlement, or a manned outpost in an asteroid at the Kuiper Belt.
There will be a recompense system based on performance, reliability and responsibility. An amount of StarCoins, as money, will be earned if the players accomplish its goal and passes to the next level. The mistakes and errors will be severally punished, because an equal to the reality, a simple error could result in the lost of several lives.
In the second level, a Doer player will be able to act as a commander of an orbital station or an interplanetary Spaceship, with the increases responsibilities, and troubles associated with team leading, decision making, and management of high value assets.
In the third level, a Doer will be acting as a manager of complex facilities such as bases, surfaces habitats, settlements, underground research facilities, asteroid outposts, etc. To pass to the next level, the players should demonstrate that can manage an extremely high value asset, and the most important way to earn a great amount of StarCoins is achieving the self-sustainability of the facility in charge, he or she should demonstrate commercial abilities and business success, he or she will be shareholder of the consortium that owns the facility.
In the fourth level, a Doer will be acting as a commander of an interstellar Starship that will be dispatched to the Alpha Centauri Stellar System. Asides of the precedent goals, responsibilities, and troubles that he or she will must to manage, there will be unknown dangers to discover and tackle.
In the fifth level, a Doer should iterate all the previous levels but in a exo-solar settlement, at first in the Alpha Centauri Stellar System, and then following with all the others Stars.
Project Information
License: Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0Source Code/Project URL: https://github.com/andrecaminoa/Go-for-IT
Resources
100 Year Starship Initiative - http://symposium.100yss.org/about-100yssCentauri Dreams - http://www.centauri-dreams.org/
Eyes on the Solar System - http://eyes.nasa.gov/
Kardashev Scale - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale
The Planetary Data System - http://pds.nasa.gov/
Near Earth Object Program - http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/
The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer - http://wise2.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/release/allsky/
Sun's Stellar Neighborhood - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_stars
List of Multiplanetary Systems - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stars_with_confirmed_extrasolar_planets
UNISPACE Exponential Creativity - http://unispace.ws/