Beyond our solar system, could a world teeming with glowing giant mushrooms exist? 

🪐  I revisited a lifelong interest in space science through the lens of design practice in a weekend hackathon last fall. With brilliant folks who had all just met, we created a virtual reality world that was crafted around a story about an exoplanet that harbored mega fungi - beautiful yet radioactive.

🏆 Oh, and our team ExoSpace won the Seattle nomination to advance to the Global Challenge for NASA Space Apps Challenge! 

🍄 Speculative design asks us to envision a possible future by examining our present. The world we designed, Exotopia, illustrated the leaps that life as we know it would need to thrive elsewhere: giving us an appreciation for flourishing biomes on our blue oasis, and the subsequent call to care for that abundant beauty here on Earth. Earning us the local Most Inspirational award.

🏆  Most Inspirational: ExoSpace

🏆  Seattle’s Global Nominee 

Team: Michael Zhang, Sarah Algomaie, Anna Czoski, Guillermo Reyes, Kurt Harris, Miyu Nakamori

Many thanks to the sponsors, judges, and volunteers who made the event welcoming and engaging!