Solar Mission EST - The videogame
The astronomers and engineers that will use EST in the future are now kids. The videogame “Solar Mission EST” is focused on bringing solar physics research closer to them, in a funny and entertaining way. A team of solar astronomers with superpowers will help us achieve that goal. They will have to figure out what is happening on the Sun… and save the world!
Story
The adventure begins with people waking up one day, only to discover that their toasters shoot bread slices and their ovens try to kill them. Because of an unknown reason, the magnetic field of the Sun has gone crazy and this affects all the machines on Earth, spreading chaos. To solve this situation, it is necessary to complete the construction of the European Solar Telescope, a big science infrastructure and our only hope to study the Sun in detail.
To accomplish this task, a group of solar astronomers will have the mission of collecting pieces to make EST work. As in real scientific research, the astronomers in different observatories will have to help their colleagues, providing them with some data or information needed to complete a task. The aim is to show that EST is the result of collaborative work between European partners. Moreover, the players will be introduced to some of the most relevant topics of solar research, such as sunspots, magnetic fields, granulation, etc. They will also work with the instruments and technology needed to study the Sun, including adaptive optics systems, spectrographs, filtergraphs…
- The EST videogame is designed for Android and iOS mobile platforms.
- The target audience is kids between 8 and 12 years, together with people of any age interested in science and games.
