Press releases

MINSK, 11 May (BelTA) – The Belarusian project Wake Up, Neo… has reached the semifinal stage of the NASA-sponsored international hackathon Space Apps Challenge 2016. Anyone can vote for the Belarusian team on the contest’s website till 15 May, BelTA learned from representatives of the Minsk planetarium.

For the first time the hackathon NASA Space Apps took place in Minsk in late April. The Belarusian project was one of the world’s top 25 ideas and has a chance to win. The Belarusian team includes the Minsk residents Alexander Mikulich, Maxim Piletsky, Alexei Miyusov, Sergei Belko, and Pavel Kumeisha. Alexander Mikulich is not only an author of the project but the head of the Minsk planetarium.

Alexander Mikulich said that the final purpose of the project is to use semi-automatic methods to identify, inventory and classify asteroids, including those that can threaten the Earth. “In theory it can help the mankind escape the fate of the dinosaurs,” he said.

You can vote for the project you like one time every 24 hours till 15 May. Five initiatives with the largest backing will move on to the final part of the contest. The ability to watch a rocket getting launched from Cape Canaveral live is the top prize.

This year the NASA Space Apps hackathon has gathered over 1,200 projects from 160 cities across the globe.