Space Apps 2020 marks the ninth year thousands of innovators, storytellers, coders, scientists, students, designers, makers and artists across the globe will convene to solve Earth and space sciences challenge identified by NASA. The theme for this year’s event, occurring over the weekend of October 2-4, 2020, is "Take Action." The Earth Applied Sciences Program is looking for participants to bring their skills, knowledge and creativity to leverage NASA data and tools to tackle complex global challenges.
NASA’s International Space Apps Challenge is a 48-hour international hackathon that occurs simultaneously in locations around the world. Typically, selected volunteers host in-person hackathon events around the world. This year, in the interest of global health and safety in the setting of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the entirely volunteer event leaders have organized the first ever all-virtual annual Space Apps Challenge hackathon! The goal is to allow Earth and space science enthusiasts and experts in their communities to network and collaborate.
In another remarkable first, NASA is working with four other space agencies — the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and France’s National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) — to develop this year’s Space Apps hackathon. They are sharing relevant datasets, as well as subject matter experts, to advise participants during the hackathon weekend via a chat platform and to judge solutions that are developed.
The 23 challenges this year span several Earth Applied Sciences topics, including understanding health impacts of air pollution, tracking and predicting distribution of life on Earth, and identifying infrastructures that are vulnerable to disasters such as floods. To create with fellow Space Apps solvers around the world – register with your location or the Universal Event at the "2020 Space Apps Challenge" website.
