NASA Prospect was created by a group of student designers at the University of South Dakota in collaboration with NASA and the Humans in Space Art program. As the students had no experience with web development prior to this project, advanced coding assistance was provided by their professor, Collin Hover. We hope you enjoyed the experience!

A large glowing map took our attention as the voice faded. At the top left was the solar system, and stretching from it in every direction were paths through the stars. One path was brighter than the others. Who knows what we'd find out there.

It was followed by millions of voices cheering, whooping, and clapping. There were even a few whistles.

As we looked at each other in surprise, we heard another beat, then another, and then a wave of noise as the golden objects started to circle us.

As the last golden object fit into our collection, the set started to hum.

The sun may have be terrifyingly hot, but the longer we spent here the fuzzier my memory got. Disappointed, I threw the final object into our collection. This was the last planet and we had all the golden objects, but knowing we were the last...

Greetings! If you are reading this, we are awfully sorry to say that humankind is in great danger. There is no time to explain, but suffice to say we are currently facing an extinction event. As you are the very last effort of humanity...

We were a lot more cautious this time, and snuck as close as we could before pouncing on the golden object.

The cobalt blue of the Planet cut through the shards floating in Neptune's atmosphere and burst into a thousand lights. It'd be absolutely chill if it wasn't so cold.

We both agreed that was the coolest thing we'd ever seen, and would definitely have to go down in history as one of the ultimate achievements of humanity.

We swapped stories of our fight on Uranus the whole way to Neptune. Ema told me how she melted its face off with lasers, and I reminded her how I shocked it with super-beats from my boombox.

Ema and I seemed to understand each other without another word: no toothy ground-sucking punk was going to ruin our day.

Ice and rock tore apart with horrendous force as a creature with teeth for a brain burst up in front of us. With an uncharacteristic lack of evil bad-dude speeches, it lunged at us.

There was something here, I knew it. But somehow it was different from all the other planets.

I think we both felt it as we landed on Uranus, but Ema was the first to say anything, all traces of her recent hilarity gone.

I had to laugh as well. Sure, it was a terrible joke, but when was the last time you could actually say that while on a trip to Uranus?

...or else your Prospector will be forced into hibernation until rejoined with his or her Planet Jumper. In addition to travel, Jumpers are also regenerative power generators, and supply over 9000 megajoules(MJ) the Prospector needs to sustain such powerful sensors. Finally, seeing as...

We floated over the object and scooped it up. The electromagnetic waves must have been warped by Saturn's atmosphere, because the sound was especially radical here.

Much like Jupiter, we couldn't go far into Saturn before the environment became fatal, but here the winds were even faster. Instead, we decided to skim Saturn's surface and rings in the hopes we would catch a golden object that hadn't sunk in too deep.

They each had the same faint image of Earth on them, so it didn't seem likely that they were puzzle pieces. But maybe Ema was on to something...

Neither of us fancied taking a dip in Jupiter's storms and the atmosphere was having a field day with my sensors, so if there was anything here the only way we'd find it was by sight. After several fruitless orbits, we used the planet's enormous gravitational pull to sling shot towards Saturn.

That was the second time the messages mentioned the disappearance of humankind, but still we had no explanation of how it happened or where they went.

...you have each been given an incomplete range of human memories and knowledge, it is very likely that you will think yourself a 'human'. As you are carrying everything we once were, you may as well be. So congratulations, honorary humans! Good luck, and let the golden objects lead you!

It could have been anywhere in the asteroid belt. I mean, this ring swoops all the way around the sun. Can you imagine how long that could have taken us to find?

What with avoiding asteroids left and right, I only just noticed the familiar draw of a golden object.

We were speeding towards something, and it wasn't a planet. It looked like a series of spots, stretching so far across that we couldn't see where they started or stopped.

...Each golden object contains the codified remains of the human race, and you all have been modified to experience a unique portion of this data when in close proximity. Your mission is to...

It was Ema that saw it first, and this time we were expecting the message when it appeared.

Red dust and orange rust kicked up around us as we touched down. I was glad to feel the pulling sensation of a golden object again.

Sometimes, all we need is a little electromagnetic music to get us back on track.

We listened and called out over and over, but no one responded. It was only after we gave up on contacting anyone that I noticed the absence of any golden objects.

I tried to comfort Ema, and although I don't think it helped much, she thanked me anyway.

No matter what, Ema always sounded happy. It was strange enough talking to a robot, but one with a cheerful personality was just bizarre. Still, at that moment, she was... sad?

..you should be able to explore every bit of the solar system, and this may well be required. Due to the aforementioned event, we were forced to scatter these golden objects, lest they be found too easily by the wrong hands. It is important that you do not separate, except in the most dire of situations...

...find and recover all of the golden objects. If everything is going as planned, you should have a Prospector and Planet Jumper in your company. While Prospectors are specially attuned to finding golden objects, Jumpers are able to travel quickly between planets. Working together...

These records must have had thousands of grooves, each creating a perfect circle. Over those was a faint image of Earth, as if to say where the object came from.

We could see electricity arcing across the clouds, but that only made it more exciting. Every kick-ass adventure needs some thunder and lightning.

Ema laughed, sarcasm in her voice. Maybe she hadn't looked in a mirror lately. Then again, neither had I.

Maybe I should have been more concerned with how I got out here, millions of miles away from home, but I couldn't stop thinking about the music.

We'd gotten our first golden object without much trouble, aside from the insane temperature fluctuations, and a strange note to boot. Better not push our luck here.

There didn't seem to be much here after all. Perhaps we would find what we were looking for somewhere else.

...our future depends on you. As you can see, this message has been split into many parts, and each part attached to golden objects much like the one you now hold...

As I approached it, I started to hear something incredibly familiar. It felt like something from a past life.

Suddenly I felt something. Something familiar and new at the same time, and it was urging me to find it.

I had no idea how we survived so far, but I couldn't complain about that.

Before I had a chance to respond, my visor lit up with an array of buttons, panels, and readouts.

Suddenly she was there, a robot like I'd never seen before, extending me what was probably her impression of a helping hand.

Again I heard an electronic voice, but they sounded much too happy to be floating helplessly towards the sun alongside me.

My voice sounded electronic, but not the unpleasant or grating sort. I was expecting a heavier sound, you know, like physical vibrations. This was faster and lighter.

It felt like my entire body was straining to hear that garbled noise again. As if I could be swept away to safety by a sound.

But I didn't need to ask where I was, the crushing heat of the sun told me well enough. As for who I was, I didn't remember. And at that moment I didn't care, because there is nothing as terrifying as free floating in space.

Every kid wants to be an astronaut. Spaceships, aliens, planets, stars, black holes... way more than you could explore in a lifetime. But no kid spends their summer days pretending to be a Prospector. Huh, when was the last time you heard about what we do for humankind?

Welcome to NASA Prospect!

Prospect is the interactive story of the planet prospectors, left behind by NASA to recover the golden objects of humankind scattered across the solar-system by a global disaster.

This episode follows Nicolas and Ema, on a mission to find remnants of human music contained in the golden records. Travel with them as they explore new planets, overcome great odds, and make unexpected friends. Space isn't so lonely when you've got friends with you!

NASA Prospect was created by a group of student designers at the University of South Dakota. As the students had no experience with web development prior to this project, advanced coding assistance was provided by their professor, Collin Hover. We hope you enjoyed the experience, and don't forget to look up once in a while! This project was authored by and is copyright to Amanda Connelly, Amy Gehling, Calvin LaBrie, Ashley Palmer, Keaton Solomon, and Collin Hover 2012.

This project and all of its source files may be found at http://github.com/collinhover/nasaprospect . We've released the source files under the MIT License in the hopes that they will help others produce something even better!