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Planetary Satellites
Avesta Rastan
University of Toronto, Canada
Illustration
Category Top Talent
A satellite is any moon, planet, or machine that is in orbit around a planet or star. Although satellites are typically associated with the man-made spacecraft that orbit our Earth, there are far more satellites in our solar system. Most of these are natural satellites, or moons, that can be found orbiting other planets. We, humans, tend to look far beyond our solar system to search for life or for interesting celestial objects; however, closer scrutiny may reveal that our own solar system is far more diverse than realized. The data for this piece was taken primarily from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at NASA, specifically their Solar System Dynamics website, for the purpose of exploring the wonders of planetary satellites.
When we think of "moon," we automatically think of the beautiful white orb in the night sky. Most people are unaware of the hundreds of other moons, also called planetary satellites, within our solar system. This project is intended to simplify the vast amount of data from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory into an educational poster. It illustrates how many moons each planet has, as well as unique characteristics of those moons. Some of these moons may even be able to sustain life. I wanted the audience to imagine what it could be like on one of these moons.
Data was taken from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a couple other resources. Once I had the data, I sketched how I wanted to organize it in a meaningful way that is interesting to a wide audience. I compiled the chosen information into an Excel document and imported it into Tableau, where I played around with different ways to visualize the data. I then exported PDFs and brought them into Adobe Illustrator, and the rest is history!
I expanded this project into an interactive data visualization. My intent was to educate a lay audience in a fun and engaging way; hence, I designed a platformer game for mobile. After brainstorming and creating low-fidelity mockups, I designed a user interaction board to describe the navigation.
