Project Overview

Our project, Cosmic Symphony, converts astronomical data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and other open data. By analyzing the light emitted from celestial bodies, we create melodies, rhythms, and harmonies that represent the 88 constellations. Through this, we offer a unique blend of art and science, enabling people to experience the universe visually and sonically.

How Does It Work?

• Data Interpretation: We take star data (such as brightness, distance, and magnitude) from NASA's Open APIs catalogues and convert it into musical notes, rhythms, and chord progressions.

• Musical Mapping: Each star’s properties—such as brightness, magnitude, and relative position—are mapped to a specific note, chord, or musical instrument. For example, a star’s luminosity influences the intensity or volume of the sound, while its magnitude defines the pitch.

• Constellation Melodies: Each constellation is turned into a unique melody, with its stars dictating musical scales and sequences.

• Multimedia Experience: We combine this generated music with stunning JWST visuals, creating an immersive audio-visual experience. Viewers can explore constellations, play their melodies, and learn about the stars while enjoying both visuals and sound.

Benefits

1. Educational Engagement: The project makes space exploration accessible by offering an intuitive, artistic way to explore star data. By turning data into music, complex scientific concepts become easier to grasp.

2. Emotional Connection: Sound evokes emotion in ways that visuals alone can’t. By converting cosmic data into music, we create a deeply emotional experience that invites people to feel the awe and mystery of space.

3. Interactivity: The project allows users to interact with star data in a playful, engaging way, discovering both the science and the art hidden in the cosmos.

Goals

Our primary goal is to blend science and art, fostering curiosity about space and scientific exploration through a multi-sensory experience. By bringing space closer to people emotionally and creatively, we aim to inspire a deeper interest in both astronomy and music.

Tools and Technologies

1. JavaScript Build Tools

• Rollup: Used as a module bundler to bundle and optimize the JavaScript code for production.

2. Web Development Frameworks/Libraries

• Bootstrap: A popular CSS framework used for responsive web design.

• Splide: A lightweight and flexible slider/carousel library.

• Three.js: A JavaScript 3D library for rendering 3D graphics on the web.

• Tone.js: A framework for creating interactive music in the browser using the Web Audio API.

• Tonal.js: A music theory library for JavaScript that works with scales, chords, and harmonies.

• Tween.js: A library for tweening, or creating smooth animations.

• Chart.js: A powerful library for creating charts and visualizations.

3. MIDI and Music Data

• Tone.js MIDI: For handling and manipulating MIDI data.

• Tonal.js: A tool for working with musical data, scales, and chords.

4. Data Handling and Utilities

• Axios: A promise-based HTTP client for making API requests.

• CSV Parser: A tool for parsing and converting CSV files into usable data.

• fs-extra: Adds extra filesystem methods not included in Node.js, useful for file manipulation.

• Lodash: A utility library for simplifying data manipulation.

5. Development and Monitoring

• Nodemon: Monitors for changes in the code and automatically restarts the server.

• Standard: A JavaScript linter to ensure code quality.

• Stats.js: A performance monitor for tracking the frame rate and other statistics during development.

6. Deployment Tooling:
• Cloudflare: Used for global caching and Zero Trust technology to expose applications running in my servers

• Proxmox: Hypervisor OS that allows us to manage Virtual Machines and LXC containers from my home lab

• Coolify: Self-hosted CI/CD deployment solution

• Ansible: Virtual Machine Provisioning

• Hardware: The project is designed to run on the browser of any standard consumer devices (desktops, tablets, phones), with no specialized hardware required.

By using these tools and technologies, we’ve created a project that is both interactive and scalable, designed for a broad audience.

Special Thanks To:

- Sebastián (A.) Cajas Ordóñez - For making me aware that this hackathon existed

- Dan Garfield - For giving me ideas for the concept of the project

2024 NASA Space Apps Challenge

Cosmic Symphony