Quasar

News
Quasar AI
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Exoplanet Data
NASA Photo Library (with Download Feature)
Exoplanet Data In Depth

Inspiration

We were inspired by all the recent innovations in space, from new rocket technology to the beautiful images captured by the latest space telescopes. We wanted to bring all of this and more together into one platform that is easily accessible through just a smartphone.

What it does

This app pulls freely available data from news websites and NASA through various APIs, and then brings it into a beautiful user interface. The News section has the latest in space news. When an article is clicked on, the article's website opens in-app to provide a clean experience.

The Images section contains NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, as well as a gallery of all of their space-related images. All of this is available to scroll through and download through the app.

The Exoplanet section lists all of the currently discovered exoplanets and lists data about them, allowing the user to search through the vast treasure trove of information.

The Quasar AI section is powered by a cloud Llama 3 model and a custom prompt, providing a simplistic yet elegant interface for users to ask about any questions that they have about space.

The entire app is designed around feeling complete and well-built, so many quality features like smooth animations and a dark mode are available.

How we built it

The app was built using React Native, styled using Tailwind CSS for Native (Nativewind). We call from NASA's APOD and IVL APIs, as well as their Exoplanet API (through TAPS). We call from the Hackclub AI API for the Llama model. Notable libraries that we used include Gifted Chat, React Native Reanimated, and React Navigation.

Challenges we ran into

The APIs were challenging to work with, but through constantly looking through the documentation, we were able to figure them out.

The information was also vast, which provided another problem: downloading all of it each time cost a lot of time. To solve this, we stored a lot of the data locally (mainly images and exoplanet data), and displayed local information instead.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The app looks incredibly clean, and yet we also had time to aggregate thousands of images, articles, and data points and put it all into the app. In addition, working with an AI API to create a UI where users could communicate was rather tough, but we managed to make something not far off from official apps and websites (ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.)

What we learned

Throughout the development process, we learned a lot about React Native and Tailwind (states were a big hassle early on!), but we got very accustomed to it over the course of Montyhacks VIII. In addition, we also learned how to work better with APIs, including passing json-formatted POST requests and work with TAPS APIs.

What's next for Quasar

We plan to publish this app to the app store very soon, enabling more people to learn about space and the amazing advancements in the field of space exploration.