A Trip Around the Asteroid Belt
Carrie Geisler
Major: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Genre/Medium: Board Game/ Papercraft
About the work:
Take “A Trip Around the Asteroid Belt” in this Psyche-inspired version of a classic family board game! Travel the asteroid belt on the Psyche spacecraft and collect scientific data on as many asteroids as you can along the way! Gain research funding when others visit the asteroids that you’re studying and use that money to gain data points and discoveries that make your research even more valuable! Earn rewards for completing mission goals and contend with common challenges of space missions from schedule slips to instrument malfunctions. But be careful not to get stuck waiting on the launch pad for your next mission!
The game board includes 22 of the largest asteroids in the asteroid belt, as well as the planets Mars and Jupiter, whose orbits are found on either side of the asteroid belt. It also includes the four main instruments onboard the Psyche spacecraft, and spaces which direct you to perform an action or take an action card. Action cards describe things such as completing science objectives of the Psyche mission or suffering a mission misfortune such as having to push back the launch date. The game was designed with the colors of the mission logo in mind, and the board folds up for easy storage!