The 2025 NASA Space Apps Challenge was held on October 4-5, 2025. This challenge is now closed.

Summary

Satellite observations reveal insights about our dynamic home planet to scientists, but people without a remote sensing background often find the stories within these datasets difficult to access. NASA’s open data policy makes these observations available to everyone—scientists and non-scientists alike. Your challenge is to build a short, immersive, virtual reality (VR) experience that leverages NASA’s Earth observation datasets and visualizations to bring stories about our planet’s oceans to life, connecting a broad audience to this data, its beauty, and its impact. Using visuals, spatial audio, and even interactive elements, your VR experience can enable users to dive deeper into Earth’s unfolding ocean story.

Background

The story of oceans is the story of life. Oceans define our home planet, covering the majority of Earth’s surface and driving the water cycle that dominates our land and atmosphere. Oceans also impact weather patterns and climate, produce most of the oxygen humans need to breathe, and are home to a vast array of species we depend on. The ocean is so critical to our planet, yet even after studying it from space for 20 years, there is still so much about it we are just learning now!

Earth is a dynamic and interconnected planet. NASA Earth observing satellites allow scientists to use unique vantage points in space to view Earth as one system. Publicly available data from NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem (PACE), Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT), and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-on (GRACE-FO) missions, among others, have helped increase our understanding about how oceans are changing and how these changes may affect or have affected aspects of life on Earth. These missions offer a global, dynamic picture of Earth’s oceans and the entire water cycle, but the stories they tell are not easily accessible to people without a background in remote sensing. It would be beneficial to help the public understand this data by offering a view of oceans that most people—even avid beach-goers—have never experienced.

Objectives

Your challenge is to build a short, immersive, virtual reality (VR) experience that leverages NASA’s Earth observation datasets and visualizations to bring stories about our planet’s oceans to life. Imagine new ways of communicating Earth science by turning data into art, science into stories, and viewers into informed global citizens through VR! You can utilize NASA's extensive Earth datasets to craft short, impactful stories that reveal compelling aspects of our planet’s ocean—from environmental conservation to atmospheric phenomena, geological changes, and pressing oceanic issues like sea-level change, ocean health, and biodiversity.

Think about how your project could enable users to freely explore immersive worlds, surrounded by vivid visualizations and spatial soundscapes that transform complex data into accessible, memorable experiences. Can you create a captivating VR experience that educates, engages, and inspires audiences of all ages and backgrounds? For example, you could prioritize accessibility by incorporating various features (e.g., seated or standing play, subtitles, color-safe palettes) to ensure everyone can participate. Since the experience will take place within a virtual reality environment viewed through head mounted displays (HMDs), don’t forget to make sure that your tool is compatible with VR headsets that are easily available to consumers.

How will you creatively blend narration, visuals, and sound to deepen understanding, foster emotional connections, and provide an enriching experience for users? You could even incorporate interactive elements into the experience. For example, you could integrate hand tracking, motion controllers, eye-tracking, or other innovative interaction techniques.

Your project will invite users to step into a virtual journey where NASA's extraordinary Earth data meets storytelling, creating a captivating narrative that educates, engages, and inspires!

Potential Considerations

You may (but are not required to) consider the following:

Story and Audience

An optimum narrative length is often considered to be between 2–5 minutes.
To enable a broader set of users, you could frame the storyline for a general audience, while allowing optional modes or language layers that resonate with younger K – 12 students or specialized viewers.
Don’t forget to craft a clear story arc with a beginning, middle, and ending.
Including a positive takeaway could inspire users!

Data and Science Communication

Consider combining multiple NASA datasets (e.g., satellite imagery, visualizations, model outputs) for richer context.
You can acknowledge data sources in unobtrusive ways—e.g., a voiceover, credits panel, or subtle text—to maintain transparency.
Don’t forget to translate technical terms (e.g., aerosol optical depth, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index [NDVI]) into plain language or visual metaphors that reinforce user comprehension.

Immersion and Interaction

You could use scale shifts, motion parallax, or time-lapse animations to convey magnitude and temporal change.
Consider incorporating spatialized sound effects or musical cues that correspond to data trends (e.g., rising pitch with temperature increase).
Consider incorporating interaction methods such as gaze-triggered hotspots, hand-tracked gestures, or controller inputs to reveal deeper data layers.

Inclusivity and Accessibility

You could include subtitles, high-contrast user interface (UI) elements, and color-blind-safe palettes to improve inclusivity.
Provision of seated, standing, and limited mobility navigation modes could broaden accessibility for users.

Technical and Performance

You could incorporate optimized textures, mesh complexity, and particle effects to help ensure smooth performance across a variety of HMDs.
You may also create other versions (e.g., WebXR, fallback 2D, or 360-video versions) so audiences without VR hardware can still engage with the experience.

Innovation and “Wow" Factor

Mixed-reality extensions, multi-user modes, or haptic feedback could make a project stand out.
Creative perspective shifts—e.g., viewing Earth through the eyes of a satellite, animal, or future generation—may heighten emotional impact.

For data and resources related to this challenge, refer to the Resources tab at the top of the page.

Deep Dive: Immersive Data Stories from Ocean to Sky