ASPHALT!

What Did You Make?
I built a 24/7 Slack bot with space-themed slash commands that anyone in the Hack Club Slack workspace can use. The bot responds to commands like /asphalt-ping to check if it's online, /asphalt-astro to fetch NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, /asphalt-mars to get Mars rover photos, /asphalt-spacefact for random space facts, and /asphalt-help to see all available commands. It runs continuously on Hack Club Nest so it's always available.

What Was Challenging?
Deploying to Nest and keeping the bot running 24/7. I had to switch from systemd to pm2 after doing a lot of research online since systemd kept failing. Setting up SSH keys and debugging Git issues on Windows were also tricky.

What Are You Proud Of?
I'm proud of building something that actually works and is useful to others. The bot has 9 different commands that interact with real APIs from NASA, SpaceX, and other space-related services. Anyone in the Hack Club Slack can type a command and get a cool space fact, see the latest Mars rover photo, or check the ISS location in real time. It's also running 24/7 on a real server, which feels like a huge step from just running code on my laptop.

How to Test My Project
In the Hack Club Slack workspace, type these commands in any channel:
/asphalt-ping=Check if the bot is online
/asphalt-help=Show all available commands
/asphalt-spacefact=Get a random space fact
/asphalt-astro=NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
/asphalt-mars=Get a Mars rover photo
/asphalt-launch=Latest SpaceX launch info
/asphalt-news=Latest space news headline
/asphalt-company=Random space company profile
/asphalt-iss=International Space Station location

Example: Type /asphalt-astro and the bot will reply with NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, including the title, date, explanation, and a link to the full image. The bot is live 24/7, so you can test it anytime! Just type any of the slash commands above and it will respond instantly.