NASA Launches Second International Space Apps Challenge

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Jan 28, 2013, 03:32 ET

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA and government agencies worldwide will host the second International Space Apps Challenge April 20-21, with events across all seven continents and in space.

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Participants are encouraged to develop mobile applications, software, hardware, data visualization and platform solutions that could contribute to space exploration missions and help improve life on Earth.

The two-day event will provide an opportunity for government to harness the expertise and entrepreneurial spirit of citizen explorers to help address global challenges. During the event, representatives of NASA and other international space agencies will gather with scientists and participants to use publicly released open data to create solutions for 50 software, hardware and visualization challenges, including robotics, citizen science platforms and applications of remote sensing data. Challenges selected to be worked on during the event will be published online prior to the event.

The 2012 challenge engaged more than 2,000 participants who collaborated on more than 100 open source solutions to 71 featured challenges.

"What sets apart the International Space Apps Challenge from other events is that this is a collaborative opportunity to engage people from all over the world to participate in space exploration and develop state-of-the-art technology to improve life on Earth and in space," said Nick Skytland, program manager of NASA's Open Innovation Program.

Twelve locations in the United States will host an International Space Apps Challenge event: Atlanta, Ga.; Austin, Texas; Cape Canaveral, Fla.; Cleveland; Detroit, Easton, Md.; New York; Philadelphia; Reno, Nev.; Rochester, N.Y.; San Francisco; Syracuse, N.Y. Thirty-eight other events will be held in 30 other countries: Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Poland, Macedonia, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Uganda and United Kingdom. Also participating will be McMurdo Station in Antarctica and astronauts aboard the International Space Station.