Schlagwort: esa

Run your code aboard the International Space Station with Astro Pi
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Each year, the European Astro Pi Challenge allows students and young people in ESA Member States (or Slovenia, Canada, or Malta) to write code for their own experiments, which could run on two Raspberry Pi units aboard the International Space Station.

The Astro Pi Challenge is a lot of fun, it’s about space, and so that we in the Raspberry Pi team don’t have to miss out despite being adults, many of us mentor their own Astro Pi teams — and you should too!

So, gather your team, stock up on freeze-dried ice cream, and let’s do it again: the European Astro Pi Challenge 2019/2020 launches today!

Luca Parmitano launches the 2019-20 European Astro Pi Challenge

ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano is this year’s ambassador of the European Astro Pi Challenge. In this video, he welcomes students to the challenge and gives an overview of the project. Learn more about Astro Pi: http://bit.ly/AstroPiESA ★ Subscribe: http://bit.ly/ESAsubscribe and click twice on the bell button to receive our notifications.

The European Astro Pi Challenge 2019/2020 is made up of two missions: Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab.

Astro Pi Mission Zero

Mission Zero has been designed for beginners/younger participants up to 14 years old and can be completed in a single session. It’s great for coding clubs or any groups of students don’t have coding experience but still want to do something cool — because having confirmation that code you wrote has run aboard the International Space Station is really, really cool! Teams write a simple Python program to display a message and temperature reading on an Astro Pi computer, for the astronauts to see as they go about their daily tasks on the ISS. No special hardware or prior coding skills are needed, and all teams that follow the challenge rules are guaranteed to have their programs run in space!

Mission Zero eligibility
- Participants must be no older than 14 years
- 2 to 4 people per team
- Participants must be supervised by a teacher, mentor, or educator, who will be the point of contact with the Astro Pi team
- Teams must be made up of at least 50% team members who are citizens of an ESA Member* State, or Slovenia, Canada, or Malta
Astro Pi Mission Space Lab

Mission Space Lab is aimed at more experienced/older participants up to 19 years old, and it takes place in 4 phases over the course of 8 months. The challenge is to design and write a program for a scientific experiment to be run on an Astro Pi computer. The best experiments will be deployed to the ISS, and teams will have the opportunity to analyse and report on their results.

Mission Space Lab eligibility
- Participants must be no older than 19 years
- 2 to 6 people per team
- Participants must be supervised by a teacher, mentor, or educator, who will be the point of contact with the Astro Pi team
- Teams must be made up of at least 50% team members who are citizens of an ESA Member State*, or Slovenia, Canada, or Malta
How to plan your Astro Pi Mission Space Lab experiment

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://rpf.io/ytsub Help us reach a wider audience by translating our video content: http://rpf.io/yttranslate Buy a Raspberry Pi from one of our Approved Resellers: http://rpf.io/ytproducts Find out more about the #RaspberryPi Foundation: Raspberry Pi http://rpf.io/ytrpi Code Club UK http://rpf.io/ytccuk Code Club International http://rpf.io/ytcci CoderDojo http://rpf.io/ytcd Check out our free online training courses: http://rpf.io/ytfl Find your local Raspberry Jam event: http://rpf.io/ytjam Work through our free online projects: http://rpf.io/ytprojects Do you have a question about your Raspberry Pi?

For both missions, each member of the team has to be at least one of the following:
- Enrolled full-time in a primary or secondary school in an ESA Member State, or Slovenia, Canada, or Malta
- Homeschooled (certified by the National Ministry of Education or delegated authority in an ESA Member State or Slovenia, Canada, or Malta)
- A member of a club or after-school group (such as Code Club, CoderDojo, or Scouts) located in an ESA Member State*, or Slovenia, Canada, or Malta
Take part

To take part in the European Astro Pi Challenge, head over to the Astro Pi website, where you’ll find more information on how to get started getting your team’s code into SPACE!

Obligatory photo of Raspberry Pis floating in space!

*ESA Member States: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom

Website: LINK
12/09/2019
European Astro Pi Challenge: Mission Space Lab winners 2018–2019!

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This is your periodic reminder that there are two Raspberry Pi computers in space! That’s right — our Astro Pi units Ed and Izzy have called the International Space Station home since 2016, and we are proud to work with ESA Education to run the European Astro Pi Challenge, which allows students to conduct scientific investigations in space, by writing computer programs.

An Astro Pi takes photos of the earth from the window of the International Space Station

The Challenge has two missions: Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab. The more advanced one, Mission Space Lab, invites teams of students and young people under 19 years of age to enter by submitting an idea for a scientific experiment to be run on the Astro Pi units.

ESA and the Raspberry Pi Foundation would like to congratulate all the teams that participated in the European Astro Pi Challenge this year. A record-breaking number of more than 15000 people, from all 22 ESA Member States as well as Canada, Slovenia, and Malta, took part in this year’s challenge across both Mission Space Lab and Mission Zero!

Eleven teams have won Mission Space Lab 2018–2019

After designing their own scientific investigations and having their programs run aboard the International Space Station, the Mission Space Lab teams spent their time analysed the data they received back from the ISS. To complete the challenge, they had to submit a short scientific report discuss their results and highlight the conclusions of their experiments. We were very impressed by the quality of the reports, which showed a high level of scientific merit.

We are delighted to announce that, while it was a difficult task, the Astro Pi jury has now selected eleven winning teams, as well as highly commending four additional teams. The eleven winning teams won the chance to join an exclusive video call with ESA astronaut Frank De Winne. He is the head of the European Astronaut Centre in Germany, where astronauts train for their missions. Each team had the once-in-a-lifetime chance to ask Frank about his life as an astronaut.

And the winners are…

Firewatchers from Post CERN HSSIP Group, Portugal, used a machine learning method on their images to identify areas that had recently suffered from wildfires.

Go, 3.141592…, Go! from IES Tomás Navarro Tomás, Spain, took pictures of the Yosemite and Lost River forests and analysed them to study the effects of global drought stress. They did this by using indexes of vegetation and moisture to assess whether forests are healthy and well-preserved.

Les Robotiseurs from Ecole Primaire Publique de Saint-André d’Embrun, France, investigated variations in Earth’s magnetic field between the North and South hemispheres, and between day and night.

TheHappy.Pi from I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Bolesława Krzywoustego w Słupsku, Poland, successfully processed their images to measure the relative chlorophyll concentrations of vegetation on Earth.

AstroRussell from Liceo Bertrand Russell, Italy, developed a clever image processing algorithm to classify images into sea, cloud, ice, and land categories.

Les Puissants 2.0 from Lycee International de Londres Winston Churchill, United Kingdom, used the Astro Pi’s accelerometer to study the motion of the ISS itself under conditions of normal flight and course correction/reboost maneuvers.

Torricelli from ITIS “E.Torricelli”, Italy, recorded images and took sensor measurements to calculate the orbital period and flight speed of the ISS followed by the mass of the Earth using Newton’s universal law of gravitation.

ApplePi from I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Króla Stanisława Leszczyńskiego w Jaśle, Poland, compared their images from Astro Pi Izzy to historical images from 35 years ago and could show that coastlines have changed slightly due to erosion or human impact.

Spacethon from Saint Joseph La Salle Pruillé Le Chétif, France, tested their image-processing algorithm to identify solid, liquid, and gaseous features of exoplanets.

Stithians Rocket Code Club from Stithians CP School, United Kingdom, performed an experiment comparing the temperature aboard the ISS to the average temperature of the nearest country the space station was flying over.

Vytina Aerospace from Primary School of Vytina, Greece, recorded images of reservoirs and lakes on Earth to compare them with historical images from the last 30 years in order to investigate climate change.

Highly commended teams

We also selected four teams to be highly commended, and they will receive a selection of goodies from ESA Education and the Raspberry Pi Foundation:

Aguere Team from IES Marina Cebrián, Spain, investigated variations in the Earth’s magnetic field due to solar activity and a particular disturbance due to a solar coronal hole.

Astroraga from CoderDojo Trento, Italy, measured the magnetic field to investigate whether astronauts can still use a compass, just like on Earth, to orient themselves on the ISS.

Betlemites from Escoles Betlem, Spain, recorded the temperature on the ISS to find out if the pattern of a convection cell is different in microgravity.

Rovel In The Space from Scuola secondaria I grado A.Rosmini ROVELLO PORRO(Como), Italy, executed a program that monitored the pressure and would warn astronauts in case space debris or micrometeoroids collided with the ISS.

The next edition is not far off!

ESA and the Raspberry Pi Foundation would like to invite all school teachers, students, and young people to join the next edition of the challenge. Make sure to follow updates on the Astro Pi website and Astro Pi Twitter account to look out for the announcement of next year’s Astro Pi Challenge!

Website: LINK

19/06/2019
Yuri 3 rover | The MagPi #82

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In honour of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, this year’s Pi Wars was space-themed. Visitors to the two-day event — held at the University of Cambridge in March — were lucky enough to witness a number of competitors and demonstration space-themed robots in action.

Among the most impressive was the Yuri 3 mini Mars rover, which was designed, lovingly crafted, and operated by Airbus engineer John Chinner. Fascinated by Yuri 3’s accuracy, we got John to give us the inside scoop.

Airbus ambassador

John is on the STEM Ambassador team at Airbus and has previously demonstrated its prototype ExoMars rover, Bridget (you can drool over images of this here: magpi.cc/btQnEw), including at the BBC Stargazing Live event in Leicester. Realising the impressive robot’s practical limitations in terms of taking it out and about to schools, John embarked on a smaller but highly faithful, easily transportable Mars rover. His robot-building experience began in his teens with a six-legged robot he took along to his technical engineering apprenticeship interview and had walk along the desk. Job deftly bagged, he’s been building robots ever since.

Yuri is a combination of an Actobotics chassis based on one created by Beatty Robotics plus 3D-printed wheels and six 12 V DC brushed gears. Six Hitec servo motors operate the steering, while the entire rover has an original Raspberry Pi B+ at its heart.

Yuri 3 usually runs in ‘tank steer’ mode. Cannily, the positioning of four of its six wheels at the corners means Yuri 3’s wheels can each be turned so that it spins on the spot. It can also ‘crab’ to the side due to its individually steerable wheels.

The part more challenging for home users is the ‘gold thermal blanket’. The blanket ensures that the rover can maintain working temperature in the extreme conditions found on Mars. “I was very fortunate to have a bespoke blanket made by the team who make them for satellites,” says John. “They used it as a training exercise for the apprentices.”

John has made some bookmarks from the leftover thermal material which he gives away to schools to use as prizes.

Rover design

While designing Yuri 3, it probably helped that John was able to sneak peeks of Airbus’s ExoMars prototypes being tested at the firm’s Mars Yard. (He once snuck Yuri 3 onto the yard and gave it a test run, but that’s supposed to be a secret!) Also, says John, “I get to see the actual flight rover in its interplanetary bio clean room”.

His involvement with all things Raspberry Pi came about when he was part of the Astro Pi programme, in which students send code to two Raspberry Pi devices aboard the International Space Station every year. “I did the shock, vibration, and EMC testing on the actual Astro Pi units in Airbus, Portsmouth,” John proudly tells us.

A very British rover

As part of the European Space Agency mission ExoMars, Airbus is building and integrating the rover in Stevenage. “What a fantastic opportunity for exciting outreach,” says John. “After all the fun with Tim Peake’s Principia mission, why not make the next British astronaut a Mars rover? … It is exciting to be able to go and visit Stevenage and see the prototype rovers testing on the Mars Yard.”

John also mentions that he’d love to see Yuri 3 put in an appearance at the Raspberry Pi Store; in the meantime, drooling punters will have to build their own Mars rover from similar kit. Or, we’ll just enjoy John’s footage of Yuri 3 in action and perhaps ask very nicely if he’ll bring Yuri along for a demonstration at an event or school near us.

John wrote about the first year of his experience building Yuri 3 on his blog. And you can follow the adventures of Yuri 3 over on Twitter: @Yuri_3_Rover.

Read the new issue of The MagPi

This article is from today’s brand-new issue of The MagPi, the official Raspberry Pi magazine. Buy it from all good newsagents, subscribe to pay less per issue and support our work, or download the free PDF to give it a try first.

Website: LINK

30/05/2019
Raspberry Pi captures a Soyuz in space!

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So this happened. And we are buzzing!

You’re most likely aware of the Astro Pi Challenge. In case you’re not, it’s a wonderfully exciting programme organised by the European Space Agency (ESA) and us at Raspberry Pi. Astro Pi challenges European young people to write scientific experiments in code, and the best experiments run aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on two Astro Pi units: Raspberry Pi 1 B+ and Sense HATs encased in flight-grade aluminium spacesuits.

It’s very cool. So, so cool. As adults, we’re all extremely jealous that we’re unable to take part. We all love space and, to be honest, we all want to be astronauts. Astronauts are the coolest.

So imagine our excitement at Pi Towers when ESA shared this photo on Friday:

This is a Soyuz vehicle on its way to dock with the International Space Station. And while Soyuz vehicles ferry between earth and the ISS all the time, what’s so special about this occasion is that this very photo was captured using a Raspberry Pi 1 B+and a Raspberry Pi Camera Module, together known as Izzy, one of the Astro Pi units!

So if anyone ever asks you whether the Raspberry Pi Camera Module is any good, just show them this photo. We don’t think you’ll need to provide any further evidence after that.

Website: LINK

13/05/2019
Jenni Sidey inspires young women in science with Astro Pi

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Today, ESA Education and the Raspberry Pi Foundation are proud to celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science! In support of this occasion and to encourage young women to enter a career in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics), CSA astronaut Jenni Sidey discusses why she believes computing and digital making skills are so important, and tells us about the role models that inspired her.

Jenni Sidey inspires young women in science with Astro Pi

Today, ESA Education and the Raspberry Pi Foundation are proud to celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science! In support of this occasion and to encourage young women to enter a career in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics), CSA astronaut Jenni Sidey discusses why she believes computing and digital making skills are so important, and tells us about the role models that inspired her.

Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science!

The International Day of Women and Girls in Science is part of the United Nations’ plan to achieve their 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. According to current UNESCO data, less than 30% of researchers in STEM are female and only 30% of young women are selecting STEM-related subjects in higher education

That’s why part of the UN’s 2030 Agenda is to promote full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls. And to help young women and girls develop their computing and digital making skills, we want to encourage their participation in the European Astro Pi Challenge!

The European Astro Pi Challenge

The European Astro Pi Challenge is an ESA Education programme run in collaboration with the Raspberry Pi Foundation that offers students and young people the amazing opportunity to conduct scientific investigations in space! The challenge is to write computer programs for one of two Astro Pi units — Raspberry Pi computers on board the International Space Station.

Astro Pi’s Mission Zero is open until 20 March 2019, and this mission gives young people up to 14 years of age the chance to write a simple program to display a message to the astronauts on the ISS. No special equipment or prior coding skills are needed, and all participants that follow the mission rules are guaranteed to have their program run in space!

Take part in Mission Zero — in your language!

To help many more people take part in their native language, we’ve translated the Mission Zero resource, guidelines, and web page into 19 different languages! Head to our languages section to find your version of Mission Zero and take part.

If you have any questions regarding the European Astro Pi Challenge, email us at [email protected].

Website: LINK

11/02/2019
Tim Peake congratulates winning Mission Space Lab teams!

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This week, the ten winning Astro Pi Mission Space Lab teams got to take part in a video conference with ESA Astronaut Tim Peake!

ESA Astro Pi students meet Tim Peake

Uploaded by Raspberry Pi on 2018-06-26.

A brief history of Astro Pi

In 2014, Raspberry Pi Foundation partnered with the UK Space Agency and the European Space Agency to fly two Raspberry Pi computers to the International Space Station. These Pis, known as Astro Pis Ed and Izzy, are each equipped with a Sense HAT and Camera Module (IR or Vis) and housed within special space-hardened cases.

In our annual Astro Pi Challenge, young people from all 22 ESA member states have the opportunity to design and code experiments for the Astro Pis to become the next generation of space scientists.

Mission Zero vs Mission Space Lab

Back in September, we announced the 2017/2018 European Astro Pi Challenge, in partnership with the European Space Agency. This year, for the first time, the Astro Pi Challenge comprised two missions: Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab.

Mission Zero is a new entry-level challenge that allows young coders to have their message displayed to the astronauts on-board the ISS. It finished up in February, with more than 5400 young people in over 2500 teams taking part!

For Mission Space Lab, young people work like real scientists by designing their own experiment to investigate one of two topics:

Life in space

For this topic, young coders write code to run on Astro Pi Vis (Ed) in the Columbus module to investigate life aboard the ISS.

Life on Earth

For this topic, young people design a code experiment to run on Astro Pi IR (Izzy), aimed towards the Earth through a window, to investigate life down on our planet.

Our participants

We had more than 1400 students across 330 teams take part in this year’s Mission Space Lab. Teams who submitted an eligible idea for an experiment received an Astro Pi kit from ESA to develop their Python code. These kits contain the same hardware that’s aboard the ISS, enabling students to test their experiments in conditions similar to those on the space station. The best experiments were granted flight status earlier this year, and the code of these teams ran on the ISS in April.

And the winners are…

The teams received the results of their experiments and were asked to submit scientific reports based on their findings. Just a few weeks ago, 98 teams sent us brilliant reports, and we had the difficult task of whittling the pool of teams down to find the final ten winners!

As you can see in the video above, the winning teams were lucky enough to take part in a very special video conference with ESA Astronaut Tim Peake.

2017/18 Mission Space Lab winning teams

The Dark Side of Light from Branksome Hall, Canada, investigated whether the light pollution in an area could be used to determine the source of energy for the electricity consumption.

Spaceballs from Attert Lycée Redange, Luxembourg, successfully calculated the speed of the ISS by analysing ground photographs.

Enrico Fermi from Liceo XXV Aprile, Italy, investigated the link between the Astro Pi’s magnetometer and X-ray measurements from the GOES-15 satellite.

Team Aurora from Hyvinkään yhteiskoulun lukio, Finland, showed how the Astro Pi’s magnetometer could be used to map the Earth’s magnetic field and determine the latitude of the ISS.

@stroMega from Institut de Genech, France, used Astro Pi Izzy’s near-infrared Camera Module to measure the health and density of vegetation on Earth.

Ursa Major from a CoderDojo in Belgium created a program to autonomously measure the percentage of vegetation, water, and clouds in photographs from Astro Pi Izzy.

Canarias 1 from IES El Calero, Spain, built on existing data and successfully determined whether the ISS was eclipsed from on-board sensor data.

The Earth Watchers from S.T.E.M Robotics Academy, Greece, used Astro Pi Izzy to compare the health of vegetation in Quebec, Canada, and Guam.

Trentini DOP from CoderDojo Trento, Italy, investigated the stability of the on-board conditions of the ISS and whether or not they were effected by eclipsing.

Team Lampone from CoderDojo Trento, Italy, accurately measured the speed of the ISS by analysing ground photographs taken by Astro Pi Izzy.

Well done to everyone who took part, and massive congratulations to all the winners!

Website: LINK

26/06/2018
ESA Now Testing a Prototype Microgravity 3D Printer

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The European Space Agency (ESA) is testing a 3D printer designed to work under microgravity and fabricate with engineering polymers featuring high end mechanical and thermal properties.

A prototype 3D printer capable of printing in microgravity has been handed over to the European Space Agency (ESA) for use on the International Space Station (ISS).

Developed by leading Portuguese 3D printer manufacturer BEEVERYCREATIVE and an international consortium of partners, the microgravity 3D printer has been two years in the making.

The goal of the MELT project — Manufacturing of Experimental Layer Technology — is to design, develop and test a fully functional 3D printer that can work under the microgravity conditions on the ISS (International Space Station).

It must be capable of 3D printing demanding engineering polymers with high end mechanical and thermal properties. And it needs to be simple enough to operate and maintain by astronauts on board the ISS.

The international consortium, made up of Portugal’s BEEVERYCREATIVE, Germany’s SONACA Space, Germany’s OHB-System and Portugal’s Active Space Technologies has now delivered their prototype machine to ESA for testing.

ESA is Going to MELT Plastic in Space

Moving forward, BEEVERYCREATIVE plans to leverage the knowledge gained from the MELT project into developing a new, industry-oriented 3D printer for product development needs and rapid prototyping.

This new printer is being developed by the Portuguese start-up with the support of Instituto Pedro Nunes, who are a member of ESA’s Network of Technology Transfer Brokers. They facilitate the commercialization of space technology in non-space markets, and disseminate the best and most promising space technologies and competencies of Portuguese space companies and academies.

The institute also coordinates the ESA Incubation Center in Portugal, where startups that transfer space technology to terrestrial sectors are supported, as well as new companies wishing to enter the commercial space market, called New Space.

The new 3D printer from BEEVERYCREATIVE will be aimed at industries like automotive, footwear, electronic and many others, who require rapid prototyping with high-end properties, ease of use, material diversity and design flexibility. Overall, these industries will benefit from time and cost reduction in the product development processes.

Source: BEEVERYCREATIVE

License: The text of „ESA Now Testing a Prototype Microgravity 3D Printer“ by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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18/05/2018
Astro Pi upgrades launch today!

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Before our beloved SpaceDave left the Raspberry Pi Foundation to join the ranks of the European Space Agency (ESA) — and no, we’re still not jealous *ahem* — he kindly drafted us one final blog post about the Astro Pi upgrades heading to the International Space Station today! So here it is. Enjoy!

We are very excited to announce that Astro Pi upgrades are on their way to the International Space Station! Back in September, we blogged about a small payload being launched to the International Space Station to upgrade the capabilities of our Astro Pi units.

Sneak peek

For the longest time, the payload was scheduled to be launched on SpaceX CRS 14 in February. However, the launch was delayed to April and so impacted the flight operations we have planned for running Mission Space Lab student experiments.

To avoid this, ESA had the payload transferred to Russian Soyuz MS-08 (54S), which is launching today to carry crew members Oleg Artemyev, Andrew Feustel, and Ricky Arnold to the ISS.

Ricky Arnold on Twitter

L-47 hours.

You can watch coverage of the launch on NASA TV from 4.30pm GMT this afternoon, with the launch scheduled for 5.44pm GMT. Check the NASA TV schedule for updates.

The upgrades

The pictures below show the flight hardware in its final configuration before loading onto the launch vehicle.

All access

With the wireless dongle, the Astro Pi units can be deployed in ISS locations other than the Columbus module, where they don’t have access to an Ethernet switch.

We are also sending some flexible optical filters. These are made from the same material as the blue square which is shipped with the Raspberry Pi NoIR Camera Module.

#bluefilter

So that future Astro Pi code will need to command fewer windows to download earth observation imagery to the ground, we’re also including some 32GB micro SD cards to replace the current 8GB cards.

More space in space

Tthe items above are enclosed in a large 8″ ziplock bag that has been designated the “AstroPi Kit”.

It’s ziplock bags all the way ~~down~~ up

Once the Soyuz docks with the ISS, this payload is one of the first which will be unpacked, so that the Astro Pi units can be upgraded and deployed ready to run your experiments!

More Astro Pi

Stay tuned for our next update in April, when student code is set to be run on the Astro Pi units as part of our Mission Space Lab programme. And to find out more about Astro Pi, head to the programme website.

Website: LINK

21/03/2018
Mission Space Lab flight status announced!
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In September of last year, we launched our 2017/2018 Astro Pi challenge with our partners at the European Space Agency (ESA). Students from ESA membership and associate countries had the chance to design science experiments and write code to be run on one of our two Raspberry Pis on the International Space Station (ISS).

Submissions for the Mission Space Lab challenge have just closed, and the results are in! Students had the opportunity to design an experiment for one of the following two themes:
- Life in space
  Making use of Astro Pi Vis (Ed) in the European Columbus module to learn about the conditions inside the ISS.
- Life on Earth
  Making use of Astro Pi IR (Izzy), which will be aimed towards the Earth through a window to learn about Earth from space.
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst, speaking from the replica of the Columbus module at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, has a message for all Mission Space Lab participants:

ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst congratulates Astro Pi 2017-18 winners

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://rpf.io/ytsub Help us reach a wider audience by translating our video content: http://rpf.io/yttranslate Buy a Raspberry Pi from one of our Approved Resellers: http://rpf.io/ytproducts Find out more about the Raspberry Pi Foundation: Raspberry Pi http://rpf.io/ytrpi Code Club UK http://rpf.io/ytccuk Code Club International http://rpf.io/ytcci CoderDojo http://rpf.io/ytcd Check out our free online training courses: http://rpf.io/ytfl Find your local Raspberry Jam event: http://rpf.io/ytjam Work through our free online projects: http://rpf.io/ytprojects Do you have a question about your Raspberry Pi?

Flight status

We had a total of 212 Mission Space Lab entries from 22 countries. Of these, a 114 fantastic projects have been given flight status, and the teams’ project code will run in space!

But they’re not winners yet. In April, the code will be sent to the ISS, and then the teams will receive back their experimental data. Next, to get deeper insight into the process of scientific endeavour, they will need produce a final report analysing their findings. Winners will be chosen based on the merit of their final report, and the winning teams will get exclusive prizes. Check the list below to see if your team got flight status.

Belgium

Flight status achieved:
- Team De Vesten, Campus De Vesten, Antwerpen
- Ursa Major, CoderDojo Belgium, West-Vlaanderen
- Special operations STEM, Sint-Claracollege, Antwerpen
Canada

Flight status achieved:
- Let It Grow, Branksome Hall, Toronto
- The Dark Side of Light, Branksome Hall, Toronto
- Genie On The ISS, Branksome Hall, Toronto
- Byte by PIthons, Youth Tech Education Society & Kid Code Jeunesse, Edmonton
- The Broadviewnauts, Broadview, Ottawa
Czech Republic

Flight status achieved:
- BLEK, Střední Odborná Škola Blatná, Strakonice
Denmark

Flight status achieved:
- 2y Infotek, Nærum Gymnasium, Nærum
- Equation Quotation, Allerød Gymnasium, Lillerød
- Team Weather Watchers, Allerød Gymnasium, Allerød
- Space Gardners, Nærum Gymnasium, Nærum
Finland

Flight status achieved:
- Team Aurora, Hyvinkään yhteiskoulun lukio, Hyvinkää
France

Flight status achieved:
- INC2, Lycée Raoul Follereau, Bourgogne
- Space Project SP4, Lycée Saint-Paul IV, Reunion Island
- Dresseurs2Python, clg Albert CAMUS, essonne
- Lazos, Lycée Aux Lazaristes, Rhone
- The space nerds, Lycée Saint André Colmar, Alsace
- Les Spationautes Valériquais, lycée de la Côte d’Albâtre, Normandie
- AstroMega, Institut de Genech, north
- Al’Crew, Lycée Algoud-Laffemas, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
- AstroPython, clg Albert CAMUS, essonne
- Aruden Corp, Lycée Pablo Neruda, Normandie
- HeroSpace, clg Albert CAMUS, essonne
- GalaXess [R]evolution, Lycée Saint Cricq, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
- AstroBerry, clg Albert CAMUS, essonne
- Ambitious Girls, Lycée Adam de Craponne, PACA
Germany

Flight status achieved:
- Uschis, St. Ursula Gymnasium Freiburg im Breisgau, Breisgau
- Dosi-Pi, Max-Born-Gymnasium Germering, Bavaria
Greece

Flight status achieved:
- Deep Space Pi, 1o Epal Grevenon, Grevena
- Flox Team, 1st Lyceum of Kifissia, Attiki
- Kalamaria Space Team, Second Lyceum of Kalamaria, Central Macedonia
- The Earth Watchers, STEM Robotics Academy, Thessaly
- Celestial_Distance, Gymnasium of Kanithos, Sterea Ellada – Evia
- Pi Stars, Primary School of Rododaphne, Achaias
- Flarions, 5th Primary School of Salamina, Attica
Ireland

Flight status achieved:
- Plant Parade, Templeogue College, Leinster
- For Peats Sake, Templeogue College, Leinster
- CoderDojo Clonakilty, Co. Cork
Italy

Flight status achieved:
- Trentini DOP, CoderDojo Trento, TN
- Tarantino Space Lab, Liceo G. Tarantino, BA
- Murgia Sky Lab, Liceo G. Tarantino, BA
- Enrico Fermi, Liceo XXV Aprile, Veneto
- Team Lampone, CoderDojoTrento, TN
- GCC, Gali Code Club, Trentino Alto Adige/Südtirol
- Another Earth, IISS “Laporta/Falcone-Borsellino”
- Anti Pollution Team, IIS “L. Einaudi”, Sicily
- e-HAND, Liceo Statale Scientifico e Classico ‘Ettore Majorana’, Lombardia
- scossa team, ITTS Volterra, Venezia
- Space Comet Sisters, Scuola don Bosco, Torino
Luxembourg

Flight status achieved:
- Spaceballs, Atert Lycée Rédange, Diekirch
- Aline in space, Lycée Aline Mayrisch Luxembourg (LAML)
Poland

Flight status achieved:
- AstroLeszczynPi, I Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Krola Stanislawa Leszczynskiego w Jasle, podkarpackie
- Astrokompasy, High School nr XVII in Wrocław named after Agnieszka Osiecka, Lower Silesian
- Cosmic Investigators, Publiczna Szkoła Podstawowa im. Św. Jadwigi Królowej w Rzezawie, Małopolska
- ApplePi, III Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. prof. T. Kotarbińskiego w Zielonej Górze, Lubusz Voivodeship
- ELE Society 2, Zespol Szkol Elektronicznych i Samochodowych, Lubuskie
- ELE Society 1, Zespol Szkol Elektronicznych i Samochodowych, Lubuskie
- SpaceOn, Szkola Podstawowa nr 12 w Jasle – Gimnazjum Nr 2, Podkarpackie
- Dewnald Ducks, III Liceum Ogólnokształcące w Zielonej Górze, lubuskie
- Nova Team, III Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. prof. T. Kotarbinskiego, lubuskie district
- The Moons, Szkola Podstawowa nr 12 w Jasle – Gimnazjum Nr 2, Podkarpackie
- Live, Szkoła Podstawowa nr 1 im. Tadeusza Kościuszki w Zawierciu, śląskie
- Storm Hunters, I Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Krola Stanislawa Leszczynskiego w Jasle, podkarpackie
- DeepSky, Szkoła Podstawowa nr 1 im. Tadeusza Kościuszki w Zawierciu, śląskie
- Small Explorers, ZPO Konina, Malopolska
- AstroZSCL, Zespół Szkół w Czerwionce-Leszczynach, śląskie
- Orchestra, Szkola Podstawowa nr 12 w Jasle, Podkarpackie
- ApplePi, I Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. Krola Stanislawa Leszczynskiego w Jasle, podkarpackie
- Green Crew, Szkoła Podstawowa nr 2 w Czeladzi, Silesia
Portugal

Flight status achieved:
- Magnetics, Escola Secundária João de Deus, Faro
- ECA_QUEIROS_PI, Secondary School Eça de Queirós, Lisboa
- ESDMM Pi, Escola Secundária D. Manuel Martins, Setúbal
- AstroPhysicists, EB 2,3 D. Afonso Henriques, Braga
Romania

Flight status achieved:
- Caelus, “Tudor Vianu” National High School of Computer Science, District One
- CodeWarriors, “Tudor Vianu” National High School of Computer Science, District One
- Dark Phoenix, “Tudor Vianu” National High School of Computer Science, District One
- ShootingStars, “Tudor Vianu” National High School of Computer Science, District One
- Astro Pi Carmen Sylva 2, Liceul Teoretic “Carmen Sylva”, Constanta
- Astro Meridian, Astro Club Meridian 0, Bihor
Slovenia

Flight status achieved:
- astrOSRence, OS Rence
- Jakopičevca, Osnovna šola Riharda Jakopiča, Ljubljana
Spain

Flight status achieved:
- Exea in Orbit, IES Cinco Villas, Zaragoza
- Valdespartans, IES Valdespartera, Zaragoza
- Valdespartans2, IES Valdespartera, Zaragoza
- Astropithecus, Institut de Bruguers, Barcelona
- SkyPi-line, Colegio Corazón de María, Asturias
- ClimSOLatic, Colegio Corazón de María, Asturias
- Científicosdelsaz, IES Profesor Pablo del Saz, Málaga
- Canarias 2, IES El Calero, Las Palmas
- Dreamers, M. Peleteiro, A Coruña
- Canarias 1, IES El Calero, Las Palmas
The Netherlands

Flight status achieved:
- Team Kaki-FM, Rkbs De Reiger, Noord-Holland
United Kingdom

Flight status achieved:
- Binco, Teignmouth Community School, Devon
- 2200 (Saddleworth), Detached Flight Royal Air Force Air Cadets, Lancashire
- Whatevernext, Albyn School, Highlands
- GraviTeam, Limehurst Academy, Leicestershire
- LSA Digital Leaders, Lytham St Annes Technology and Performing Arts College, Lancashire
- Mead Astronauts, Mead Community Primary School, Wiltshire
- STEAMCademy, Castlewood Primary School, West Sussex
- Lux Quest, CoderDojo Banbridge, Co. Down
- Temparatus, Dyffryn Taf, Carmarthenshire
- Discovery STEMers, Discovery STEM Education, South Yorkshire
- Code Inverness, Code Club Inverness, Highland
- JJB, Ashton Sixth Form College, Tameside
- Astro Lab, East Kent College, Kent
- The Life Savers, Scratch and Python, Middlesex
- JAAPiT, Taylor Household, Nottingham
- The Heat Guys, The Archer Academy, Greater London
- Astro Wantenauts, Wantage C of E Primary School, Oxfordshire
- Derby Radio Museum, Radio Communication Museum of Great Britain, Derbyshire
- Bytesyze, King’s College School, Cambridgeshire
Other

Flight status achieved:
- Intellectual Savage Stars, Lycée français de Luanda, Luanda
Congratulations to all successful teams! We are looking forward to reading your reports.

Website: LINK
20/02/2018
Astro Pi celebrates anniversary of ISS Columbus module
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Right now, 400km above the Earth aboard the International Space Station, are two very special Raspberry Pi computers. They were launched into space on 6 December 2015 and are, most assuredly, the farthest-travelled Raspberry Pi computers in existence. Each year they run experiments that school students create in the European Astro Pi Challenge.

Left: Astro Pi Vis (Ed); right: Astro Pi IR (Izzy). Image credit: ESA.

The European Columbus module

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the launch of the European Columbus module. The Columbus module is the European Space Agency’s largest single contribution to the ISS, and it supports research in many scientific disciplines, from astrobiology and solar science to metallurgy and psychology. More than 225 experiments have been carried out inside it during the past decade. It’s also home to our Astro Pi computers.

Here’s a video from 7 February 2008, when Space Shuttle Atlantis went skywards carrying the Columbus module in its cargo bay.

STS-122 Launch NASA TV Coverage

From February 7th, 2008 NASA-TV Coverage of The 121st Space Shuttle Launch Launched At:2:45:30 P.M E.T – Coverage begins exactly one hour till launch STS-122 Crew:

Today, coincidentally, is also the deadline for the European Astro Pi Challenge: Mission Space Lab. Participating teams have until midnight tonight to submit their experiments.

Anniversary celebrations

At 16:30 GMT today there will be a live event on NASA TV for the Columbus module anniversary with NASA flight engineers Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei.

Our Astro Pi computers will be joining in the celebrations by displaying a digital birthday candle that the crew can blow out. It works by detecting an increase in humidity when someone blows on it. The video below demonstrates the concept.

AstroPi candle

Uploaded by Effi Edmonton on 2018-01-17.

Do try this at home

The exact Astro Pi code that will run on the ISS today is available for you to download and run on your own Raspberry Pi and Sense HAT. You’ll notice that the program includes code to make it stop automatically when the date changes to 8 February. This is just to save time for the ground control team.

If you have a Raspberry Pi and a Sense HAT, you can use the terminal commands below to download and run the code yourself:
```
wget http://rpf.io/colbday -O birthday.py
chmod +x birthday.py
./birthday.py
```
When you see a blank blue screen with the brightness increasing, the Sense HAT is measuring the baseline humidity. It does this every 15 minutes so it can recalibrate to take account of natural changes in background humidity. A humidity increase of 2% is needed to blow out the candle, so if the background humidity changes by more than 2% in 15 minutes, it’s possible to get a false positive. Press Ctrl + C to quit.

Please tweet pictures of your candles to @astro_pi – we might share yours! And if we’re lucky, we might catch a glimpse of the candle on the ISS during the NASA TV event at 16:30 GMT today.

Website: LINK
07/02/2018
Astro Pi Mission Zero: your code is in space
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Every school year, we run the European Astro Pi challenge to find the next generation of space scientists who will program two space-hardened Raspberry Pi units, called Astro Pis, living aboard the International Space Station.

Italian ESA Astronaut Paolo Nespoli with the Astro Pi units. Image credit ESA.

Astro Pi Mission Zero

The 2017–2018 challenge included the brand-new non-competitive Mission Zero, which guaranteed that participants could have their code run on the ISS for 30 seconds, provided they followed the rules. They would also get a certificate showing the exact time period during which their code ran in space.

We asked participants to write a simple Python program to display a personalised message and the air temperature on the Astro Pi screen. No special hardware was needed, since all the code could be written in a web browser using the Sense HAT emulator developed in partnership with Trinket.

Scott McKenzie on Twitter

Students coding #astropi emulator to scroll a message to astronauts on @Raspberry_Pi in space this summer. Try it here: https://t.co/0KURq11X0L #Rm9Parents #CSforAll #ontariocodes

And now it’s time…

We received over 2500 entries for Mission Zero, and we’re excited to announce that tomorrow all entries with flight status will be run on the ISS…in SPAAACE!

There are 1771 Python programs with flight status, which will run back-to-back on Astro Pi VIS (Ed). The whole process will take about 14 hours. This means that everyone will get a timestamp showing 1 February, so we’re going to call this day Mission Zero Day!

Part of each team’s certificate will be a map, like the one below, showing the exact location of the ISS while the team’s code was running.

The grey line is the ISS orbital path, the red marker shows the ISS’s location when their code was running. Produced using Google Static Maps API.

The programs will be run in the same sequence in which we received them. For operational reasons, we can’t guarantee that they will run while the ISS flies over any particular location. However, if you have submitted an entry to Mission Zero, there is a chance that your code will run while the ISS is right overhead!

Go out and spot the station

Spotting the ISS is a great activity to do by yourself or with your students. The station looks like a very fast-moving star that crosses the sky in just a few minutes. If you know when and where to look, and it’s not cloudy, you literally can’t miss it.

Source Andreas Möller, Wikimedia Commons.

The ISS passes over most ground locations about twice a day. For it to be clearly visible though, you need darkness on the ground with sunlight on the ISS due to its altitude. There are a number of websites which can tell you when these visible passes occur, such as NASA’s Spot the Station. Each of the sites requires you to give your location so it can work out when visible passes will occur near you.

Visible ISS pass star chart from Heavens Above, on which familiar constellations such as the Plough (see label Ursa Major) can be seen.

A personal favourite of mine is Heavens Above. It’s slightly more fiddly to use than other sites, but it produces brilliant star charts that show you precisely where to look in the sky. This is how it works:
1. Go to www.heavens-above.com
2. To set your location, click on Unspecified in the top right-hand corner
3. Enter your location (e.g. Cambridge, United Kingdom) into the text box and click Search
4. The map should change to the correct location — scroll down and click Update
5. You’ll be taken back to the homepage, but with your location showing at the top right
6. Click on ISS in the Satellites section
7. A table of dates will now show, which are the upcoming visible passes for your location
8. Click on a row to view the star chart for that pass — the line is the path of the ISS, and the arrow shows direction of travel
9. Be outside in cloudless weather at the start time, look towards the direction where the line begins, and hope the skies stay clear
If you go out and do this, then tweet some pictures to @raspberry_pi, @astro_pi, and @esa. Good luck!

More Astro Pi

Mission Zero certificates will be arriving in participants’ inboxes shortly. We would like to thank everyone who participated in Mission Zero this school year, and we hope that next time you’ll take it one step further and try Mission Space Lab.

Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab are two really exciting programmes that young people of all ages can take part in. If you would like to be notified when the next round of Astro Pi opens for registrations, sign up to our mailing list here.

Website: LINK
31/01/2018