The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are partnering to host a virtual hackathon to develop COVID-19 solutions at the end of the month.
The project invites coders, entrepreneurs, scientists, technologists, and others to develop solutions to issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic through open data capabilities. Participants in the Space Apps Challenge will have 48 hours to use Earth observation data to form proposals.
“The unique capabilities of NASA and its partner space agencies in the areas of science and technology enable them to lend a hand during this global crisis,” NASA wrote on the challenge website. “The hackathon will also examine the human and economic response to the virus,” the agency added.
The challenges will include tasks from studying the cause of coronavirus and its spread to the impact that the disease is having on the Earth as a whole, according to a press release about the event.
“There’s a tremendous need for our collective ingenuity right now,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said. “I can’t imagine a more worthy focus than COVID-19 on which to direct the energy and enthusiasm from around the world with the Space Apps Challenge that always generates such amazing solutions.”
