Schlagwort: Mission Zero

  • Astro Pi 2024/25: Another stellar year of space education concludes

    Astro Pi 2024/25: Another stellar year of space education concludes

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    We’re thrilled to celebrate yet another incredible year of young people reaching for the stars, as the European Astro Pi Challenge 2024/25 draws to a close. Teams from across Europe and ESA Member States are now receiving their well-deserved certificates and data from the International Space Station (ISS). It’s been a truly inspiring year, showcasing the phenomenal talent and dedication of young coders and scientists.

    A photograph of a young learner coding on a computer for Mission Zero

    The European Astro Pi Challenge is an ESA Education project run in collaboration with us here at the Raspberry Pi Foundation. It offers young people the amazing opportunity to conduct scientific investigations in space by writing computer programs that run on Raspberry Pi computers on board the ISS, called Astro Pis.

    There‘s a lot to celebrate from this year’s Astro Pi, so let’s take a look at some of the highlights for each of our inspiring Missions: Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab.

    A selection of images taken by Mission Space Lab teams
    Figure 1: A selection of images taken by Mission Space Lab teams

    Mission Zero: Inspiring coding, creativity, and inclusion

    Mission Zero reached more young people than ever before in 2024/25, with 25,405 young people participating in 17,285 teams. After passing the rigorous testing and moderation processes, an amazing 17,109 teams (25,210 young people) were successful in getting their programs to run on the ISS. 

    One of the great things about Mission Zero is that we see a good gender balance in participation. This year, 44% of participants identified as “female” and 4% as “prefer to self-describe”, “prefer not to say”, or “other”. This means that Mission Zero has achieved a more balanced gender representation than is typically seen in computing subjects, where the ratio is around 20:80 girls to boys.

    Mission Space Lab: More teams have their programs run in space

    Mission Space Lab gives young people the opportunity to calculate the speed of the ISS in orbit using sensor and camera data collected from the Astro Pis on board the ISS. This year, 1859 young people in 552 teams participated in Mission Space Lab. Notably, 309 Mission Space Lab teams, or 95% of submissions, ran their programs on the ISS and are now analysing the data they collected. That’s 73 more teams achieving flight status than in 2023/24, and a total of 1084 young people receiving unique data sets from space and certificates. 

    Running a program in space is very different from testing it on the ground. It’s always interesting to see how well your program has performed and how accurate the final output is. Below, you can see a scatter graph of the team estimates produced by their programs. The actual speed of the ISS is no secret: it’s travelling about 7.67 kilometres per second. How have teams performed with the ISS speed task?

    Mission Space Lab teams’ speed estimates graph
    Figure 2: Mission Space Lab teams’ speed estimates graph

    Inspiring and impactful

    Another highlight from this year has been seeing how impactful participation can be for young people and mentors facilitating the activity. We receive lots of valuable feedback from the Astro Pi community each year, and it’s always heartwarming to hear what your experience has been and how we can improve the challenge. Here are a couple of quotes from the community who took part this year:

    Mission Zero mentor: “Having their programs run in space really motivated them to take part because it was an exciting reward and something they wanted to talk about with their friends.”

    Parent of a Mission Zero participant: “I was completely inexperienced in Python, but easily managed to help my 7-year-old.”

    More Code Clubs participating in 2024/25

    It has been great to see lots of Code Clubs taking part in Astro Pi this year, both for Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab. This year, 986 young people from 700 teams did Mission Zero at their Code Club: that’s double the number from 2023/24. Plus, 43 Mission Space Lab teams from Code Clubs took part. That’s 143 young people, or almost double the number compared to the year before. 

    We ran two code-alongs for the Code Club community this year, and it is encouraging to see increases for both missions. We will continue to support young people from all settings who want to take part in Astro Pi next year, whether it’s at school, Code Club, or other venues.

    An educator helps young learners with a coding project

    Conclusion

    In summary, it’s been a great year for Astro Pi. We’ve reached lots of young people through the challenge, met many inspiring mentors, and seen some really positive trends. Plus, all the operations on the space station that make Astro Pi possible went smoothly: when you are running programs in space, that isn’t always the case! 

    None of it would have been possible without the tireless efforts of the teachers, mentors, and educators who help run Astro Pi in your communities. From everyone here at Mission Control, thank you. 

    If you’d like to tell us how we can provide more support to help you run Astro Pi, please email contact@astro-pi.org.

    We’ll be back for more stellar space adventures in coding in September 2025.

    Website: LINK

  • Five reasons to join the Astro Pi Challenge, backed by our impact report

    Five reasons to join the Astro Pi Challenge, backed by our impact report

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    We are excited to share our report on the impact of the 2023/24 Astro Pi Challenge. Earlier this year we conducted surveys and focus groups with mentors who took part in the Astro Pi Challenge, to understand the value and impact the challenge offers to young people and mentors. You can read the full report here, but here are the highlights.

    A child taking part in Astro Pi Mission Zero.

    What is the Astro Pi Challenge?

    The European Astro Pi Challenge is an ESA Education project run in collaboration with the Raspberry Pi Foundation. It offers young people the amazing opportunity to learn how to code and conduct scientific investigations in space, by writing computer programs that run on Raspberry Pi computers on board the International Space Station (ISS). The annual Astro Pi Challenge is open to young people up to age 19 in ESA member and associate countries.

    Each year, there are two missions: Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab.

    Five reasons to take part in the Astro Pi Challenge

    Based on the findings in this report, we wanted to highlight five great reasons to take part in the Astro Pi Challenge, and direct you to some resources to help you get started — there is still plenty of time to enter the 2024/25 challenge!

    ESA astronaut Sławosz Uznański Astro Pi Challenge 2025 ambassador.

    1. Young people get to run their code in space

    Mentors told us how excited young people were to be working on something that connected with the real world, and how proud they were that their code ran on the International Space Station.

    “Participating in Mission Space Labs offers students a great opportunity to work with the International Space Station, to see the Earth from above, to challenge them to overcome the terrestrial limits.” – Mission Space Lab mentor

    2. Young people are inspired to continue to learn

    91% of mentors told us that young people who successfully wrote code for Mission Space Lab were likely or very likely to participate in computing and digital making challenges in the future.

    Mission Zero mentors shared that young people who saw others take part in the mission were inspired to get involved.

    3. Young people learn new skills

    Mission Space Lab mentors told us that young people who successfully wrote code for Mission Space Lab had a greater understanding of STEM concepts, and increased their skills and confidence in computing and digital making.

    Mentors also said that Mission Zero provides a great first step into using Python.

    “I think it was very good at setting up the first bit of Python and just having a very limited command set and a very quick result…” – Mission Zero mentor

    4. Astro Pi mentors have fun

    It’s not just the young people that enjoy Astro Pi — 95% of Mission Space Lab mentors and 99% of Mission Zero mentors said they somewhat or very much enjoyed taking part.

    5. We provide the resources and support Astro Pi mentors need

    Mentors gave us positive feedback on the guidance we provided to help them support young people. This year, we have produced even more resources and ways to support mentors to lead missions.

    “The Mission [Space] Lab guide was fantastic for my students; step by step” – Mission Space Lab mentor

    How to get involved

    Astro Pi opened for registration on 16 September this year, and there is still plenty of time for you to sign up and run the missions with your young people. You can find all the information you need to take part on astro-pi.org, including the mentor guides, which help you prepare to run the activities.

    Mission Zero mentor guide
    Mission Space Lab mentor guide

    We also provide project guides for Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab that walk young people through the steps they need to follow to get a working program ready for submission.

    Mission Space Lab workshop held at RPF HQ.

    If you would like some help getting started, you can:

    Key dates

    17:30 – 18:30 CET, 16 January – Mission Space Lab livestream and technical Q&A
    17:30 – 18:30 CET, 28 January – Mission Zero codealong
    09:00 CET, 24 February – Mission Space Lab closes
    09:00 CET, 24 March – Mission Zero closes

    Website: LINK

  • The European Astro Pi Challenge 2024/25 launches today

    The European Astro Pi Challenge 2024/25 launches today

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    Registration is now open for the European Astro Pi Challenge 2024/25! The Astro Pi Challenge, an ESA Education project run in collaboration with us here at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, offers young people the incredible opportunity to write computer programs that will run in space.

    Logo of the European Astro Pi Challenge.

    Young people can take part in two exciting missions for beginners and more experienced coders, and send their code to run on special Raspberry Pi computers, called Astro Pis, on board the International Space Station (ISS).

    Meet the new Astro Pi ambassador, Sławosz Uznański

    Sławosz Uznański inside a replica of the Columbus module.
    Sławosz Uznański
    Sławosz Uznański at the European Space Agency.
    Sławosz Uznański at the European Space Agency

    We are delighted that new ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański will be the ambassador for this year’s Astro Pi Challenge. Sławosz, born in Poland in 1984, has a background in space systems engineering and has conducted research in radiation effects. He recently served as the Engineer in Charge of CERN’s largest accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider.

    Mission Zero: Send your pixel art into space

    In Mission Zero, young people create beautiful pixel art to display on the Astro Pis’ LED screens. This mission requires no prior experience of Python coding, and it can be completed in around an hour.

    A selection of pixel art images by Mission Zero 2023/24 participants. The images show a variety of plants and animals, such as a cactus, a cat, and an elephant.
    Pixel art examples by Mission Zero 2023/24 participants

    To take part, young people design and code pixel art inspired by nature on Earth and beyond, to display on the Astro Pi computers for the astronauts on the ISS to see as they go about their daily tasks.

    Using our step-by-step Mission Zero project guide, young people will learn to create simple Python programs in which they will code with variables and use the colour sensors on the Astro Pis to change the background colour in their images. To help your teams create their designs, check out the examples from teams that took part in Mission Zero in 2023/24 in the project guide.

    A young person smiles while using a laptop.

    Young people can create their Mission Zero programs individually or in teams of up to 4 people, and this year, we have added a save function for young people as they code. This will make it easier for mentors to run Mission Zero over more than one session, and also means that young people can finish their projects at home. They will need to use your classroom code and their team name to load their saved projects. 

    Mission Space Lab: Calculate the speed of the ISS

    Mission Space Lab asks teams to solve a real-world scientific task in space. It is ideally suited to young people who would like to learn more about space science and stretch their programming skills.

    A photo of Mexico taken by an Astro Pi computer on board the ISS.
     A photo of Mexico taken using an Astro Pi computer during a team’s experiment in Mission Space Lab 2023/24

    In Mission Space Lab this year, the task for teams of 2 to 6 young people is to calculate the speed at which the International Space Station is travelling — as accurately as possible. Teams need to write a Python program that:

    1. Collects data from the Astro Pi computers’ sensors or cameras about the orientation and motion of the ISS as it orbits the Earth, and
    2. Uses this data to calculate the travel speed
    The Astro Pi computers inside the International Space Station.
    The Astro Pi computers at a window in the International Space Station.

    This year we have created a new way for teams to test their programs, with an online version of the Astro Pi Replay tool. All teams need to do is select their program and run it in Astro Pi Replay, which will create a real-time simulation of the program running on the ISS, using historical data and images. Astro Pi Replay will also show program outputs and report errors. This means teams can code their program in their preferred code editor, then test with an internet browser. However, if they wish, teams can still run the Astro Pi Replay tool offline with Thonny.

    Important dates for your diary

    • 16 September 2024: Registration is now open for Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab!
    • 24 February 2025: Mission Space Lab submissions close
    • 24 March 2025: Mission Zero submissions close
    • April–May 2025: Astro Pi programs run on the International Space Station
    • June 2025: Astro Pi teams receive their certificates

    Register today

    Both missions are open to young people up to age 19 from eligible countries — all ESA Member States and beyond. To find out more and register, visit astro-pi.org. 

    Look out for updates and resources being shared on the Astro Pi website, including a Mission Zero video codealong and Mission Space Lab live streams. You can also keep up-to-date with all the Astro Pi news on the Astro Pi X account, our Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, or by signing up to the newsletter at astro-pi.org.

    We can’t wait to see your programs!

    Website: LINK

  • Celebrating Astro Pi 2024

    Celebrating Astro Pi 2024

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    About the projects

    Over the past few months, young people across Europe have run their computer programs  on the International Space Station (ISS) as part of Astro Pi Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab.

    Mission Zero code deployment
    Mission Zero code deployment | Credits: ESA/NASA

    Mission Zero offers young people the chance to write a simple program that takes a reading from the colour and luminosity sensor on an Astro Pi computer on board the ISS, and uses it to set the background colour in a personalised image for the astronauts to see as they go about their daily tasks. In total, 16,039 teams and 24,663 young people participated in Mission Zero this year. This was a 3% increase in teams entering compared to last year.

    Mission Space Lab offers teams of young people the chance to run scientific experiments on board the ISS. This year, 564 teams and 2,008 young people participated in Mission Space Lab. Compared with last year, there was a 4% increase in the number of teams who managed to achieve flight status and run their code in space.

    Two young people at a computer.

    To evaluate the projects, we encouraged mentors to complete surveys once their teams had submitted their computer programs. Overall, 135 Mission Zero mentors (11% of mentors) and 56 Mission Space Lab mentors (15% of mentors) completed surveys. We also ran focus groups with mentors from both projects to understand their experiences and the impact of these projects on young people.

    Impact on young people

    Understanding how technology is changing the world

    The mentors we spoke to told us how valuable Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab are because these experiences connect young people to real technology. Mentors felt that Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab bridge the gap between theoretical coding and tangible outcomes, giving young people the confidence to engage with technology.

    “Participating in Mission Space Lab offers students a great opportunity to work with the International Space Station, to see the Earth from above, to challenge them to overcome the terrestrial limits. It’s very important.” — Mission Space Lab mentor

    A young person working on a coding project on a computer.

    “We want students to use their digital skills as superpowers to make the world a better place and this competition really aligns with that because regardless of your race, your ethnicity, your gender, you can write some code that actually runs in space. And if you can do that, then you can make medical tech, or you can solve the big problem that the adults of the world are still grappling with, so it’s the opening up [of] opportunities.” — Mission Zero mentor

    Mentors observed that the project inspired children to consider careers they previously thought were out of reach. Space exploration was no longer a far away and theoretical idea for the children, but something connected to their everyday lives and their own learning.

    “Some of the people that I was teaching this to felt like becoming an astronaut was really difficult to learn… now it’s not necessarily a distant thing to study.” — Mission Zero mentor

    Mentors also described how the young people gained confidence in their ability to engage with technologies. One mentor described the “self-esteem” and “pride” younger pupils gained from participation. Others talked about the confidence that came with achieving something like having their code run in space and receiving certificates proving they were “space scientists”.

    Our mentors

    None of this would be possible without the hard work and dedication of our mentors. So, as part of our evaluation, we wanted to understand how we can best support them. For Mission Space Lab, that took the form of assessing the new guidance that we published this year and that sits alongside the project. When we spoke to mentors, they told us this guide provided clear, step-by-step guidance that enabled the young people to work through the project, and the majority of survey respondents agreed: 89% rated the Mission Space Lab project guide as somewhat or very understandable. 

    We also heard from mentors about the ways they are using Mission Zero in a wider context. Some told us that their schools ran the project as part of space-themed weeks where they used Mission Zero in conversations about space exploration, the Hubble telescope, and learning the names of the stars. Others used Mission Zero across multiple subjects by designing images and holding art competitions based on the design, as well as learning about pixels and animations. 

    A young person at a desk using a computer.

    Additionally, it was a pleasure to hear about young people who had participated in Mission Zero in previous years gaining leadership skills by supporting other young people to complete Mission Zero this year.

    Next steps

    Thank you to all the mentors who provided constructive feedback through surveys and focus groups. We have read and considered every comment and will continue to consider how to improve the experience for mentors and young people. 

    We will publish an in-depth report with the findings of our evaluation later in the year; however, we’ve already made some changes to the programme that will be launching for the 2024/25 Astro Pi challenge and wanted to share these updates with you now.

    Improvements for next year:

    Mission Zero

    • We’re adding a save button to Mission Zero to allow young people to work on this across multiple sessions.
    • We’re adding new code examples to the Mission Zero project guide. These have been selected from team submissions from the 2023/24 challenge.

    Mission Space Lab

    • We’re creating an online testing tool for Mission Space Lab so that it will be easier for teams to test whether or not their code works. It will feature new data and images captured from the ISS in spring 2024.

    We hope that all the young people and mentors who participated in last year’s Astro Pi challenge enjoyed the experience and learnt a lot. With the exciting updates we’re working on for the 2024/25 Astro Pi challenge, we hope to see even more young people participate and share their creative projects next year.

    Project launch dates

    • 16 September 2024: Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab launch
    • 24 February 2025: Mission Space Lab submissions close
    • 24 March 2025: Mission Zero submissions close
    • April – May 2025: Programs run on the International Space Station
    • June 2025: Teams receive certificates 

    Website: LINK

  • Young people receive their data from space and Astro Pi certificates

    Young people receive their data from space and Astro Pi certificates

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    Across Europe and beyond, teams of young people are receiving data from the International Space Station (ISS) this week. That’s because they participated in the annual European Astro Pi Challenge, the unique programme we deliver in collaboration with ESA Education to give kids the chance to write code that runs in space.

    The Astro Pi computers inside the International Space Station.
    The Astro Pi computers inside the International Space Station.

    In this round of Astro Pi, over 26,400 young people took part across its two missions — Mission Space Lab and Mission Zero — and had their programs run on the Raspberry Pi computers on board the ISS.

    Mission Space Lab teams find out the speed of the ISS

    In Mission Space Lab, we asked young people to team up and write code to collect data on the ISS and calculate the speed at which the ISS is travelling. 236 teams wrote programs that passed all our tests and achieved flight status to run in space. And not only will the Mission Space Lab teams receive their participation certificates this week — they’ll also receive the data their programs captured on the ISS.

    A picture of the Himalayas taken from space by the Astro Pi computers.
    A picture of the Himalayas taken from space by the Astro Pi computers.

    Many teams chose a feature extraction method to calculate the ISS’s speed, identifying two points on Earth from which to calculate the distance the ISS travelled over time. Using this method means using the high-quality camera on the Astro Pi computer to take some fantastic photos of Earth from the ISS’s World Observation Research Facility (WORF) window. Teams will receive these photos soon, which are unique views of Earth from space.

    A picture of feature extraction between two images.
    Feature extraction between two images

    How fast does the ISS travel? 

    The actual speed that the ISS is travelling in space while at normal altitude is 7.66km/s. Its altitude can affect the speed, so it can vary, but the ISS’s boosters fire up if it dips too low.

    To help teams with writing programs that can adapt to some of these variances, and to show them the type data they can collect, we gave them a programming tool we call Astro Pi Replay. Using this tool, teams can simulate how their program would run on the Astro Pi computers up in space.

    The International Space Station orbiting Earth.
    The International Space Station orbiting Earth

    This is the first time we asked Mission Space Lab teams to focus on a particular scientific question. So how did they do? The graph below shows some of the speeds that teams’ programs estimated. 

    A graph showing the range of speeds calculated by Mission Space Lab teams.
    The range of speeds calculated by Mission Space Lab teams

    As you can see, a variety of speeds were estimated, but the average is fairly close to the ISS’s actual speed. Teams did a great job trying to solve the question and working like real space scientists. Once they receive their data this week, they can check how accurate their speed estimate was.

    Mission Zero pixel art lights up astronauts’ daily tasks 

    In Astro Pi Mission Zero, a coding activity suitable for beginners, 16,039 teams of young people created code to make pixel art inspired by nature. Nearly half (44%) of the 24,409 participants were girls! 15,942 of the Mission Zero teams had their code run on the ISS after we checked that it followed the rules.

    Mission Zero Submissions

    Every team whose program ran on the ISS — with their pixel art showing for the astronauts to see as they worked — will receive certificates with the time, date, and location coordinates of their Mission Zero run. 

    We’ve been so impressed with this year’s pixel art creations that we’ve picked some as new examples for next year’s Mission Zero coding guide. That means young people will be able to choose one of a few pixel images to start with and recreate or remix them for their program. More info on that is coming soon, sign up to the Astro Pi newsletter to not miss it.

    Let’s get ready for September

    Thank you and congratulations to everyone who took part in the missions this year, and our special thanks to all the amazing educators who ran Astro Pi activities with young people.

    The boot shape of Italy photographed from space by the Astro Pi computers.
    The south of Italy photographed from space by the Astro Pi computers

    For us, there is much to reflect on and celebrate from this year’s challenge. We’ve had the chance to run Mission Zero with young people in person and identify a few changes to help make the activity easier. As Mission Space Lab now involves simulating programs running on the ISS with our new Astro Pi Replay tool, we’ll be exploring how to improve this as well.

    We hope to engage lots of previous and new participants in the Astro Pi Challenge when it starts up again in September. Sign up for the newsletter on astro-pi.org to be the first to hear about the new round.

    Website: LINK

  • Young people’s Astro Pi code is sent to the International Space Station

    Young people’s Astro Pi code is sent to the International Space Station

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    Young people taking part in the European Astro Pi Challenge are about to have their computer programs sent to the International Space Station (ISS). Astro Pi is run annually in collaboration by us and ESA Education, and offers two ways to get involved: Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab.

    Logo of the European Astro Pi Challenge.

    This year, over 25,000 young people from across Europe and eligible ESA Member States are getting their programs ‘uplinked’ to the Astro Pi computers aboard the ISS, where they will be running over the next few weeks. 

    Mission Zero teams send their art into space

    Mission Zero is an exciting activity for kids with little or no experience with coding. We invite young people to create a Python program that displays an 8×8 pixel image or animation. This program then gets sent to the ISS, and each pixel art piece is displayed for 30 seconds on the LED matrix display of the Astro Pi computers on the ISS.

    Two Astro Pis on board the International Space Station.
    Astro Pis on the ISS

    We picked the theme ‘fauna and flora’ as the inspiration for young people’s pixel art, as it proved so popular last year, and we weren’t disappointed: this year, 24,378 young people submitted 16,039 Mission Zero creations!  

    We’ve tested every program and are pleased to announce that 15,942 Mission Zero programs will be sent to run on the ISS from mid May. 

    Once again, we have been amazed at the wonderful images and animations that young people have created. Seeing all the images that have been submitted is one of the most enjoyable and inspiring things to do as we work on the Astro Pi Challenge. Here is a little selection of some of our favourites submitted this year:

    A selection of pixel art images and animation inspired by nature submitted by young people.
    A selection of Mission Zero submissions

    Varied approaches: How different teams calculate ISS speed

    For Mission Space Lab, we invite more experienced young coders to take on a scientific challenge: to calculate the speed that the ISS orbits Earth. 

    Teams are tasked with writing a program that uses the Astro Pis’ sensors and visible light camera to capture data for their calculations, and we have really enjoyed seeing the different approaches the teams have taken. 

    The mark 2 Astro Pi units spin in microgravity on the International Space Station.

    Some teams decided to calculate the distance between two points in photos of the Earth’s surface and combine this with how long it took for the ISS to pass over the points to find the speed. This particular method uses feature extraction and needs to account for ground sampling distance — how many square metres are represented in one pixel in an image of the ground taken from above — to get an accurate output.  

    We’ve also seen teams use data from the gyroscope to calculate the speed using the angle readings and photos to get their outputs. Yet other teams have derived the speed using equations of motion and sampling from the accelerometer.

    An example of features of the earth’s surface being matched across two different images.
    Feature extraction example taken from images captured by the Astro Pis

    All teams that took multiple samples from the Astro Pi sensors, or multiple images, had to decide how to output a final estimate for the speed of the ISS. Most teams opted to use the mean average. But a few teams chose to filter their samples to choose only the ‘best’ ones based on prior knowledge (Bayesian filtering), and some used a machine learning model and the Astro Pi’s machine learning dongle to select which images or data samples to use. Some teams even provided a certainty score along with their final estimate.

    236 Mission Space Lab teams awarded flight status

    However the team choses to approach the challenge, before their program can run on the ISS, we need to make sure of a few things. For a start, we check that they’ve followed the challenge rules and meet the ISS security requirements. Next, we check that the program can run without errors on the Astro Pis as the astronauts on board the ISS can’t stop what they’re doing to fix any problems. 

    So, all programs submitted to us must pass a rigorous testing process before they can be sent into space. We run each program on several replica Astro Pis, then run all the programs sequentially, to ensure there’s no problems. If the program passes testing, it’s awarded ‘flight status’ and can be sent to run in space.

    The Astro Pi computers inside the International Space Station.

    This year, 236 teams have been awarded flight status. These teams represent 889 young people from 22 countries in Europe and ESA member states. The average age of these young people is 15, and 27% of them are girls. The UK has the most teams achieving flight status (61), followed by the Czech Republic (23) and Romania (22). You can see how this compares to last year and explore other breakdowns of participant data in the annual Astro Pi impact report.  

    Our congratulations to all the Mission Space Lab teams who’ve been awarded flight status: it is a great achievement. All these teams will be invited to join a live online Q&A with an ESA astronaut in June. We can’t wait to see what questions you send us for the astronaut.

    A pause to recharge the ISS batteries 

    Normally, the Astro Pi programs run continuously from the end of April until the end of May. However, this year, there is an interesting event happening in the skies above us that means that programs will pause for a few days. The ISS will be moving its position on the ‘beta angle’ and pivoting its orientation to maximise the sunlight that it can capture with its solar panels. 

    A picture of the International Space Station.
    The International Space Station

    The ISS normally takes 90 minutes to complete its orbit, 45 minutes of which is in sunlight, and 45 minutes in darkness. When it moves along the beta angle, it will be in continual sunlight, allowing it to capture lots of solar energy and recharge its batteries. While in its new orientation, the ISS is exposed to increased heat from the sun so the window shutters must be closed to help the astronauts stay cool. That means taking photos of the Earth’s surface won’t be possible for a few days.

    What next?

    Once all of the programs have run, we will send the Mission Space Lab teams the data collected during their experiments. All successful Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab teams and mentors will also receive personal certificates to recognise their mission completion.

    Congratulations to all of this year’s Astro Pi Challenge participants, and especially to all successful teams.

    Website: LINK

  • Launch kids’ code into space with the European Astro Pi Challenge 2023/24

    Launch kids’ code into space with the European Astro Pi Challenge 2023/24

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    Throughout this year, space agencies have been embarking on new missions to explore our solar system, and young people can get involved too through the European Astro Pi Challenge 2023/24, which we’re launching today.

    Logo of the European Astro Pi Challenge.

    Kids’ code in space with the Astro Pi Challenge

    In the past few months India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission landed near the Moon’s south pole, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe flew by Venus on its way to the sun, and the SpaceX Crew-7 launched to the International Space Station (ISS), led by ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen. We’re especially excited about Andreas’ mission because he’s the astronaut who will help to run young people’s Astro Pi programs on board the ISS this year.

    ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen on board the ISS.
    ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen will help run kids’ Astro Pi code on board the ISS. Can you spot an Astro Pi computer in the photo?

    As you may know, the European Astro Pi Challenge gives young people the amazing opportunity to conduct scientific experiments in space by writing computer programs for the Astro Pis, special Raspberry Pi computers on board the ISS.

    Two Astro Pis on board the International Space Station.
    Two Astro Pis on board the International Space Station.

    The Astro Pi Challenge is free and offers two missions for young people: Mission Zero is an inspiring activity for introducing kids to text-based programming with Python. Mission Space Lab gives teams of young people the chance to take on a more challenging programming task and stretch their coding and science skills.

    A young person with her coding project at a laptop.

    Participation in Astro Pi is open to young people up to age 19 in ESA Member States (see the Astro Pi website for eligibility details).

    Astro Pi Mission Zero opens today

    In Astro Pi Mission Zero, young people write a simple Python program to take a reading using a sensor on one of the ISS Astro Pi computers and display a personalised pixel art image for the astronauts on board the ISS. They can take part by themselves or as coding teams.

    Logo of Mission Zero, part of the European Astro Pi Challenge.

    The theme for Mission Zero 2023/24 is ‘fauna and flora’: young people are invited to program pixel art images or animations of animals, plants, or fungi to display on the Astro Pi computers’ LED pixel screen and remind the astronauts aboard the ISS of Earth’s natural wonders.

    A collection of 8 by 8 pixel images of animals.
    A selection of Mission Zero pixel art images of animals.

    By following the guide we provide, kids can complete the Mission Zero coding activity in around one hour, for example during a school lesson or coding club session. No coding experience is needed to take part. Kids can write their code in any web browser on any computer connected to the internet, without special equipment or software.

    A map of Earth.
    Mission Zero participants get a certificate showing the exact time and place where their code was run in space.

    All young people that meet the eligibility criteria and follow the official Mission Zero guidelines will have their program run in space for up to 30 seconds. They will receive a unique and personalised certificate to show their coding achievement. The certificate will display the exact start and end time of their program’s run, and where the ISS was above Earth in this time period.

    Mission Zero 2023/24 opens today and is open until Monday 25 March 2024. It’s very easy to support young people to get involved — find out more on the Astro Pi website:

    Astro Pi Mission Space Lab will open soon

    In this year’s Astro Pi Mission Space Lab, ESA astronauts are inviting teams of young people to solve a scientific task by writing a Python program.

    Astro Pi Mission Space Lab logo.

    The Mission Space Lab task is to gather data with the Astro Pi computers to calculate the speed at which the ISS is travelling. This new format of the mission will allow many more young people to run their programs in space and get a taste of space science.

    The Strait of Gibraltar photographed by an Astro Pi on board the ISS.
    The Strait of Gibraltar photographed by an Astro Pi on board the ISS during a previous Mission Space Lab.

    Mission Space Lab will open on 6 November. We will share more information about how young people and mentors can participate very soon.

    Sign up for Astro Pi news

    The European Astro Pi Challenge is an ESA Education project run in collaboration with us here at the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

    You can keep up with all Astro Pi news by following the Astro Pi X account (formerly Twitter) or signing up to the newsletter at astro-pi.org.

    Website: LINK

  • Welcome home! An original Astro Pi computer back from space is now on display at the Science Museum

    Welcome home! An original Astro Pi computer back from space is now on display at the Science Museum

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    After seven successful years on the International Space Station, 250 vertical miles above our planet, the original two Astro Pi computers that we sent to the ISS to help young people run their code in space have been returned to Earth. From today, one of these Astro Pi computers will be displayed in the Science Museum, London. You can visit it in the new Engineers Gallery, which is dedicated to world-changing engineering innovations and the diverse and fascinating range of people behind them.

    Astro Pi Izzy at the Science Museum in London.

    A challenge to inspire young people about space and computing

    The original Astro Pis, nicknamed Izzy and Ed, have played a major part in feeding tens of thousands of young people’s understanding and passion for science, mathematics, engineering, computing, and coding. In their seven years on the International Space Station (ISS), Izzy and Ed had the job of running over 70,000 programs created by young people as part of the annual Astro Pi Challenge.

    Nicki Ashworth, 21, took part in the first-ever Astro Pi challenge after hearing about the opportunity at a science fair: “I thought it sounded like an interesting project, and good practice for my programming skills. I was young and had no idea of the extent of the project and how much it would influence my future.” 

    Like many young people who have participated in the Astro Pi Challenge, Nicki credits the Astro Pi Challenge as an inspiration to learn more about space and programming, and to decide on a career path: “My experience with Astro Pi definitely helped to shape my future choices. I’m currently in my third year of a Mechanical Engineering degree at University of Southampton, specialising in Computational Engineering and Design. I’ve always loved programming, which is why I took part in the Astro Pi competition, but it led to a fascination with space. This encouraged me to look at engineering as a future, and led me to where I am today!”

    Matthias catching Astro Pis in microgravity.

    In the beginning…

    It all started in 2014, when we started collaborating with organisations including the UK Space Agency and European Space Agency (ESA) to fly two Astro Pi computers to the ISS for educational activities during the six-month Principia mission of British ESA astronaut Tim Peake.

    The Astro Pi computers each consist of a Raspberry Pi computer integrated with a digital camera and an add-on board filled with environmental sensors, all enclosed in a protective aluminium flight case.

    Commander Tim Peake, Britain’s first visitor to the ISS, accompanied the two first Astro Pi computers on the ISS. He used them to run experiments imagined, designed, and coded by school-age young people across the UK. 

    We held a competition in UK schools and coding clubs to invite young people to create experiments that could be run on the Astro Pis. Students conceived experiments and coded them in Python; we tested their Python programs and eventually picked seven to run on Izzy and Ed on the ISS.

    The students’ experiments ranged from a simple but beautiful program to display the flag of the country over which the ISS was flying at a given time, to a reaction-time test for Tim Peake to measure his changing abilities across the six-month mission. The measurements from all the experiments were downloaded to Earth and analysed by the students.

    “I still feel incredibly honoured to have competed in the very first [Astro Pi Challenge],” says Aaron Chamberlain, 18, who was 11 years old when he took part in the first-ever Astro Pi Challenge in 2015. “The experience was incredible and really cemented my enthusiasm for all things computing and coding. Finally looking at the photos the Raspberry Pi had taken of the astronauts floating 400 km above us was a feeling of awe that I will never forget.”

    The next year, 2016, we expanded our partnership with ESA Education to be able to open up Astro Pi to young people across ESA Member states. The European Astro Pi Challenge has been going from strength to strength each year since, inspiring young people and adult mentors alike.

    A young person holds up her Astro Pi Mission Zero certificate.

    And today…

    In 2021 we decided it was time to retire Izzy and Ed and replace them with upgraded Astro Pi computers with plenty of new and improved hardware, including a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B with 8 GB RAM. 

    Dave Honess, STEM Didactics Expert at the European Space Agency, was engineering lead at the Foundation for the first Astro Pi Challenge, and the return of the original hardware is a special event and moment of reflection for him: “It was a strange experience to open the box and hold the original Astro Pis again after all that time and distance they have travelled — literally billions of miles. Even though their mission is over, we will continue to learn from them with a tear-down analysis to find out if they have been affected by their time in space. Since Principia, I have watched the European Astro Pi Challenge grow with pride year on year, but I still feel very fortunate to have been there at the beginning.”

    Thanks to the upgraded hardware, we are able to continue to grow the Astro Pi Challenge in collaboration with ESA Education. And each year it’s so exciting to see the creative and ingenious programs tens of thousands of young people from across Europe send us; 24,850 young people took part in the Challenge in the 2022/2023 cycle.

    But how have Astro Pis Izzy and Ed fared in space over these seven years? Jonathan Bell, Principal Software Engineer at Raspberry Pi Limited, had a chance to find out first-hand: “I was lucky enough to have a look inside the returned Astro Pis. I was looking for the cosmetic effects of the unit being on the ISS for so long. On the inside they still look as pristine as when I assembled them! Barely a speck of dust on the internal boards, nor any signs that the external interface ports were worn from their years of use. A few dings and scrapes on the anodised exterior were all that I could see — and a missing joystick cap (as it turns out, hot-melt glue isn’t a permanent adhesive…). It was great to see that they still worked! It made me feel proud for what the team and the Astro Pi programme has achieved over the years. It’s good to have Izzy and Ed back!”

    Astro Pi MK II hardware.

    Visit the Science Museum to see an Astro Pi for yourself

    The new Engineers Gallery in the Science Museum opens today and is free to visit. Astro Pi computer Izzy is among the amazing exhibits. Learn more at: sciencemuseum.org.uk/engineers  

    To find out more about the Astro Pi Challenge and how to get involved with your kids at home, your school, or your STEM or coding club, visit astro-pi.org. 

    The next round of the Challenge starts in September — sign up for news to be the first to hear when we launch it.

    Website: LINK

  • Young people designed 15,000 images for astronauts in Astro Pi Mission Zero 2022/23

    Young people designed 15,000 images for astronauts in Astro Pi Mission Zero 2022/23

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    In the Columbus module of the International Space Station (ISS), there are two Astro Pi computers called Marie Curie and Nikola Tesla. These computers run the programs young people create as part of the annual European Astro Pi Challenge.

    A young person takes part in Astro Pi Mission Zero.

    For this year’s Astro Pi Mission Zero, young people sent us over 15,000 programs to show the ISS astronauts colourful images and animations of animals and plants on the Astro Pi displays and remind them of home.

    Logo of Mission Zero, part of the European Astro Pi Challenge.

    A space mission inspired by nature

    Mission Zero is a free beginners’ coding activity. It gives young people the unique opportunity to follow our step-by-step guide to write a simple program in Python that can run in space on the ISS orbiting planet Earth.

    The mark 2 Astro Pi units spin in microgravity on the International Space Station.
    The Astro Pi computers on board the ISS

    The Mission Zero activity this year was to write code to use the Astro Pi’s colour sensor to measure the lighting conditions in the Columbus module, and to then use that measurement to set a colour in an image or animation on the Astro Pi’s 8×8 LED display. We invited young people to design images of fauna and flora to give the astronauts on board the ISS a reminder of the beautiful creatures, plantlife, and landscapes found on planet Earth.

    A selection of pixel images of animals and plants, which young people coded for Astro Pi Mission Zero.

    The Mission Zero activity is ideal for learners trying text-based programming for the first time. It covers some key programming concepts, including variables, sequence, and iteration.

    This year we received 15,551 Mission Zero programs, and after carefully checking them against the entry and safety criteria, we were able to run 15,475 programs. They were sent to us by 23,605 learners working in teams or independently, and 10,207 of this year’s participants were girls.

    A young person with her coding project at a laptop.

    This year the most Mission Zero programs came from young people in the UK, followed by Spain, France, Italy, and Greece. Lots of different organisations supported young people to take part, including publicly funded primary and secondary schools, as well as educator- and volunteer-led Code Clubs and CoderDojos we support. 

    We’re celebrating the many different people involved in this year’s mission with a mosaic of the Mission Zero logo made up of lots of the inspiring designs participants sent us. You can explore an interactive version of the image too!

    A mosaic of thousands of designs creating a large version of the Mission Zero logo.
    A mosaic of Mission Zero designs

    All of the participants whose programs ran on the ISS will be receiving a certificate to recognise their efforts, which will include the time and coordinates of the ISS when their program ran. Programs created by young people from across Europe ran on board the ISS in the final week of May. 

    If you enjoyed Astro Pi Mission Zero this year, we would be delighted to see you again in the next annual round. If you’re feeling inspired by the images young people have created, we invite you to get involved too. We provide guides and help for all adult mentors who want to support young people to take part, and the step-by-step guide for coding a Mission Zero program in 19 European languages.

    Logo of the European Astro Pi Challenge.

    The activity of designing an image has been really popular, and we have been super impressed with the creativity of young people’s designs. That’s why we’ll be running Mission Zero in the same format again starting in September.

    If you’d like to hear news of the Astro Pi Challenge, please sign up to the newsletter on astro-pi.org: 

    We are always interested to hear your feedback about Mission Zero, as a mentor or participant. If you would like to share your thoughts with us, please email enquiries@astro-pi.org. 

    PS Look out for some cool news about the Astro Pi computers, which we’ll announce soon on this blog!

    Website: LINK

  • 24850 young people’s programs ran in space for Astro Pi 2022/23

    24850 young people’s programs ran in space for Astro Pi 2022/23

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    Over 15,000 teams of young people from across Europe had their computer programs run on board the International Space Station (ISS) this month as part of this year’s European Astro Pi Challenge.

    Logo of the European Astro Pi Challenge.

    Astro Pi is run in collaboration by us and ESA Education, and offers two ways to get involved: Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab.

    Mission Zero: Images of Earth’s fauna and flora in space 

    Mission Zero is the Astro Pi beginners’ activity. To take part, young people spend an hour writing a short Python program for the Astro Pi computers on the International Space Station (ISS). This year we invited them to create an 8×8 pixel image or animation on the theme of fauna and flora, which their program showed on an Astro Pi LED matrix display for 30 seconds.

    This year, 23,605 young people’s Mission Zero programs ran on the ISS. We need to check all the programs before we can send them to space and that means we got to see all the images and animations that the young people created. Their creativity was absolutely incredible! Here are some inspiring examples:

    Pixel images from Mission Zero participants.

    Mission Space Lab: Young people’s experiments on the ISS

    Mission Space Lab runs over eight months and empowers teams of young people to design real science experiments on the ISS, executed by Python programs they write themselves. Teams choose between two themes: ‘Life in space’ and ‘Life on Earth’.

    This year, the Mission Space Lab programs of 1245 young people in 294 teams from 21 countries passed our rigorous judging and testing process. These programs were awarded flight status and sent to the Astro Pis on board the ISS, where they captured data for the teams to analyse back down on Earth.

    Mission Space Lab teams this year decided to design experiments such as analysing cloud formations to identify where storms commonly occur, looking at ocean colour as a measure of depth, and analysing freshwater systems and the surrounding areas they supply water to.

    The Earth’s surface from the perspective of the International Space Station.
    A selection of images taken by the Astro Pis of the Earth’s surface, including mountains, deserts, Aotearoa New Zealand south island, and lakes

    Teams will be receiving their experiment data later this week, and will be analysing and interpreting it over the next few weeks. For example, the team analysing freshwater systems want to investigate how these systems may be affected by climate change. What their Mission Space Lab program has recorded while running on the Astro Pis is a unique data set that the team can compare against other scientific data.

    The challenges of running programs in space

    For the ‘Life on Earth’ category of Mission Space Lab experiments this year, the Astro Pis were positioned in a different place to previous years: in the Window Observational Research Facility (WORF). Therefore the Astro Pis could take photos with a wider view. Combined with the High Quality Camera of the upgraded Astro Pi computers we sent to the ISS in 2021, this means that the teams got amazing-quality photos of the Earth’s surface.

    The Astro Pi computers inside the International Space Station.
    The two Astro Pis positioned in an observation window on the ISS

    Once the experiments for ‘Life on Earth’ were complete, the astronauts moved the Astro Pis back to the Columbus module and replaced their SD cards, ready for capturing the data for the ‘Life in Space’ experiments.

    Running programs in an environment as unique as the ISS, where all hardware and software is put to the test, brings many complexities and challenges. Everything that happens on the ISS has to be scheduled well in advance, and astronauts have a strict itinerary to follow to keep the ISS running smoothly.

    The earth’s surface from the perspective of the International Space Station, with a large robotic arm in view.
    The Canadarm in view on the ISS, photographed by an Astro Pi computer

    As usual, this year’s experiments met with their fair share of challenges. One initial challenge the Astro Pis had this year was that the Canadarm, a robotic arm on the outside of the ISS, was in operation during some of the ‘Life on Earth’ experiments. Although it’s fascinating to see part of the ISS in-shot, it also slightly obscured some of the photos.

    Another challenge was that window shutters were scheduled to close during some of the experiments, which meant we had to switch around the schedule for Mission Space Lab programs to run so that all of the experiments aiming to capture photos could do so.

    What’s next for Astro Pi?

    Well done to all the young people who’ve taken part in the European Astro Pi Challenge this year.

    • If you’ve mentored young people in Mission Zero, then we will share their unique participation certificates with you very soon.
    • If you are taking part in Mission Space Lab, then we wish you the best of luck with your analysis and final reports. We are excited to read about your findings.

    If you’d like to hear about upcoming Astro Pi Challenges, sign up to the newsletter at astro-pi.org.

    Website: LINK

  • Inspiring young people to code with the Astro Pi Challenge and astronaut Matthias Maurer

    Inspiring young people to code with the Astro Pi Challenge and astronaut Matthias Maurer

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    The European Astro Pi Challenge offers young people the opportunity to write computer programs that run on Raspberry Pi computers on board the International Space Station (ISS). There are two free, annual missions to participate in: Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab.

    Logo of Mission Zero, part of the European Astro Pi Challenge.

    Sending your computer program to space is amazing already, and to inspire even more young people about this opportunity, we’re sharing some of the fascinating stories European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer told last round’s Mission Space Lab team winners about his experiences on the ISS.

    Matthias on the ISS, catching Astro Pis in microgravity.
    ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer with the Astro Pi computer on board the ISS. Photo credit: ESA/NASA

    Last round’s winning Mission Space Lab teams were invited to a very special online session with Matthias, and he shared lots of thoughtful and surprising insights from his mission on the International Space Station. Here are three of the questions from the teams and what Matthias had to say:

    1. Working together

    Lots of the teams wanted to know about the practicalities of life on the ISS. Team Ad Astra from the UK asked “How did you and your crewmates ensure that you got on well together?” Matthias talked about how supporting each member of the team helps everyone work well together:

    2. Talking to family

    It was surprising to hear that the astronauts on the ISS have lots of opportunities to communicate with people on Earth. Matthias explained how the astronauts can keep in regular contact with their family while answering the question from Team Atlantes from Spain:

    3. Cutting-edge technology

    Team NanoKids asked Matthias about the technologies astronauts use on the ISS, and Matthias shared some fascinating glimpses into what tools help the astronauts in their surroundings:

    Thank you to all the teams for these great questions. And thank you to Matthias for offering young people a peek into what life is like in space!

    You can still get involved in this round of Astro Pi Mission Zero

    We hope Matthias’ stories inspire lots of young people to take part in the European Astro Pi Challenge. Registration for this round of Mission Space Lab is closed, so why not sign up for news about the next round?

    But it’s not too late for young people to get involved today and become part of space history. Astro Pi Mission Zero is still open for participation a little while longer — until 17 March.

    Mission Zero is a beginner’s coding activity, so it’s really easy to get involved: young people just need a grown-up to register for them, and a computer with a web browser to participate. In Mission Zero, young people up to age 19 in eligible countries have the chance to send their own simple computer program into space to display a colourful image for the astronauts to see on the ISS.

    Pixel art animals.
    Pixel art plants.
    Images created by Mission Zero 2021/22 participants

    The one-hour Mission Zero activity comes with step-by-step instructions for young people to follow. No special equipment or coding skills are needed, and all eligible young people who follow the guidelines will have their program run in space. Every Mission Zero participants receives a certificate to show the exact time and the location of the ISS during their programs run, so they’ll have something to remember their stellar achievement.

    The European Astro Pi Challenge is an ESA Education project run in collaboration with us here at the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

    Website: LINK

  • Code along with our Astro Pi Mission Zero video

    Code along with our Astro Pi Mission Zero video

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Today we’re sharing an Astro Pi Mission Zero codealong video to help even more young people send their code into space.

    In Mission Zero, young people write a simple program and display a colourful image on an Astro Pi computer on board the International Space Station (ISS). When the astronauts on mission on the ISS are working nearby, they can see the images young people have designed.

    No coding experience is needed for Mission Zero. It’s a free and inspiring beginners’ coding activity. All young people need is an hour to write the program, a web browser on any computer with internet access, and an adult mentor who can register online to access the Mission Hub (see below).

    Get inspired to code with Mission Zero

    In the codealong video, Rebecca from our team shows young people how to write their Mission Zero program step by step. We hope that it will open up this amazing coding activity to even more young people. (There’s also the written guide to creating your program, available in 20 languages.)

    A young person takes part in Astro Pi Mission Zero.

    Young people up to age 19 in ESA Member States are invited to take part, individually or as teams (see the eligibility details).

    Every participant will receive a piece of space science history to keep: a personalised certificate they can download, which shows their Mission Zero program’s exact start and end time, and the position of the ISS while their program ran.

    A young person holds up her Astro Pi Mission Zero certificate.

    The theme to inspire images for Mission Zero this year is ‘flora and fauna’, to remind the ISS astronauts of their home. The images can show anything from flowers and trees to birds, insects, and other animals. Young people could even create a series of images to show as an animation during the 30 seconds their program will run.

    Mission Zero 2022/23 is open until 17 March 2023.

    For all educators and parents

    If you’re an adult mentor supporting young people to take part, read the mission guidelines to find out all you need to know. You can also watch this short video showing you exactly how to register to access the Mission Hub and get the code to identify your young people’s programs.

    Logo of Mission Zero, part of the European Astro Pi Challenge.

    Website: LINK

  • Astro Pi Mission Zero 2022/23 is open for young people

    Astro Pi Mission Zero 2022/23 is open for young people

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    Inspire young people about coding and space science with Astro Pi Mission Zero. Mission Zero offers young people the chance to write code that will run in space! It opens for participants today.

    A young person takes part in Astro Pi Mission Zero.

    What is Mission Zero?

    In Mission Zero, young people write a simple computer program to run on an Astro Pi computer on board the International Space Station (ISS).

    Logo of Mission Zero, part of the European Astro Pi Challenge.

    Following step-by-step instructions, they write code to take a reading from an Astro Pi sensor and display a colourful image for the ISS astronauts to see as they go about their daily tasks. This is a great, one-hour activity for beginners to programming.

    The mark 2 Astro Pi units spin in microgravity on the International Space Station.
    The Astro Pi computers in microgravity on the International Space Station

    Participation is free and open for young people up to age 19 in ESA Member States (eligibility details). Everything can be done in a web browser, on any computer with internet access. No special hardware or prior coding skills are needed.

    Participants will receive a piece of space science history to keep: a personalised certificate they can download, which shows their Mission Zero program’s exact start and end time, and the position of the ISS when their program ran.

    A certificate of participation for a young person who has coded a program in Astro Pi Mission Zero
    The orbital path of the ISS above a map of Earth.

    All young people’s entries that meet the eligibility criteria and follow the official Mission Zero guidelines will have their program run in space for up to 30 seconds.

    Mission Zero 2022/23 is open until 17 March 2023.

    New this year for Mission Zero participants

    If you’ve been involved in Mission Zero before, you will notice lots of things have changed. This year’s Mission Zero participants will be the first to use our brand-new online code editor, a tool that makes it super easy to write their program using the Python language.

    Astro Pi Mission Zero coding interface.
    The new code editor where young people will write their Mission Zero programs using the Python language

    Thanks to the new Astro Pi computers that we sent to the ISS in 2021, there’s a brand-new colour and luminosity sensor, which has never been available to Mission Zero programmers before:

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI7ueWQ3CII?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    Finally, this year we’re challenging coders to create a colourful image to show on the Astro Pi’s LED display, and to use the data from the colour sensor to determine the image’s background colour.

    The theme to inspire images for Mission Zero 2022/23 is ‘flora and fauna’. The images participants design can represent any aspect of this theme, such as flowers, trees, animals, or insects. Young people could even choose to program a series of images to show a short animation during the 30 seconds their program will run.

    Pixel art animals.
    Pixel art plants.

    Here are some examples of images created by last year’s Mission Zero participants. What will you create?

    Sign up for Astro Pi news

    The European Astro Pi Challenge is an ESA Education project run in collaboration with us here at the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Young people can also take part in Astro Pi Mission Space Lab, where they will work to design a real scientific experiment to run on the Astro Pi computers.

    You can keep updated with all of the latest Astro Pi news by following the Astro Pi Twitter account or signing up to the newsletter at astro-pi.org.

    Website: LINK

  • The names of the new Astro Pi computers get revealed

    The names of the new Astro Pi computers get revealed

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    We and our collaborators at ESA Education are excited to announce that 17,168 programs written by young people from 26 countries have been successfully deployed on board the International Space Station (ISS) for the European Astro Pi Challenge 2021/22. And we can finally reveal the names of the two new and upgraded Astro Pi computers that Astro Pi participants have chosen.

    The mark 2 Astro Pi units spin in microgravity on the International Space Station.
    Young people participating in this year’s Astro Pi Mission Zero had the chance to help name these two upgraded Astro Pi computers, which we sent to the ISS in December.

    Astro Pi is more popular than ever with young people

    A record number of 28,126 young people took part across both missions in the Astro Pi Challenge 2021/22. In addition to the 299 Mission Space Lab teams who achieved flight status with the code they wrote for their scientific experiments this year, young people wrote 16,869 Mission Zero programs that were run on the new Astro Pi computers. This is an amazing 84% increase compared to Mission Zero last year.

    Mission Zero is perfect for beginner coders: participants follow our step-by-step instructions and write a simple program for the Astro Pis. The program takes a humidity reading on board the ISS and displays it for the astronauts. Participants can also include code to display their own unique message on the Astro Pi LED displays. Mission Zero teams are very inventive, and the young people made great use of the Astro Pis’ LED display to create pixel art:

    Pixel art coded by young people in Astro Pi Mission Zero.
    Examples of pixel art images designed by Mission Zero 2021/22 teams for the Astro Pis’ LED displays.

    Every Mission Zero participant receives a unique certificate showing exactly where the ISS was on its orbital path when their program was run:

    A certificate of participation for a young person who has coded a program in Astro Pi Mission Zero
    The orbital path of the ISS above a map of Earth.

    The new Astro Pi computers’ names

    This year, the deployment of all the Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab programs was overseen by ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer. But before he could do that, he first had an extra special task: unpacking and assembling the brand-new Astro Pi units in microgravity.

    Matthias catching Astro Pis in microgravity.

    The two original Astro Pis, named Ed and Izzy, travelled to the ISS back in 2015 as part of Tim Peake’s Principia mission. Since then, these two special Raspberry Pi computers have run programs written by more than 54,000 young people. They have done an amazing job and will return to Earth later in 2022.

    This year’s European Astro Pi Challenge is the first to use the two all-new Astro Pi computers, which we sent up to the ISS in December 2021. They are packed with special features, widening young people’s possibilities for new Mission Space Lab experiments. Running this year’s 17,168 programs was the new Astro Pis’ first task. 

    Two Astro Pi units on board the International Space Station.
    The two new Astro Pi computers on board the ISS

    All young people taking part in Mission Zero this year had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: they got to suggest and vote for the names of the two new Astro Pi computers. We received nearly 7,000 name suggestions.

    ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer has recorded a special message for all Astro Pi participants, revealing that the new Astro Pi computers will be named in honour of two inspirational European scientists drum roll… Nikola Tesla and Marie Curie!

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZcRsmJA_VQ?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The Astro Pi unit equipped with a Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera that is sensitive to near-infrared light is now called Nikola Tesla, and the Astro Pi unit with a visible-light sensitive High Quality Camera is now called Marie Curie.

    Marie Curie was born in Poland in 1867 and the first person ever to win two Nobel Prizes, in Physics and Chemistry, for her contribution to pioneering work on radioactivity and the treatment of cancer. Nikola Tesla was born in Croatia in 1856, and his innovations in electrical engineering included alternating current — vital for transmitting electricity over long distances — and the induction motor.

    Marie Curie.
    Marie Curie
    Nikola Tesla.
    Nikola Tesla

    Marie Curie and Nikola Tesla’s work continues to impact all of our lives today, and we are delighted that this year’s Astro Pi participants have democratically chosen their names for the new Astro Pi computers.

    Sign up for news about the next Astro Pi Challenge

    The European Astro Pi Challenge will be back again in September 2022. Subscribe to the Astro Pi newsletter on the Astro Pi website to be the first to hear when the 2022/23 missions have lift off! 

    Website: LINK

  • 3D print you own replica Astro Pi flight case

    3D print you own replica Astro Pi flight case

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    We’ve put together a new how-to guide for 3D printing and assembling your own Astro Pi unit replica, based on the upgraded units we sent to the International Space Station in December.

    Astro Pi MK II hardware.
    The new, upgraded Astro Pi units.

    The Astro Pi case connects young people to the Astro Pi Challenge

    It wasn’t long after the first Raspberry Pi computer was launched that people started creating the first cases for it. Over the years, they’ve designed really useful ones, along with some very stylish ones. Without a doubt, the most useful and stylish one has to be the Astro Pi flight case.

    Animation of how the components of the Mark 2 Astro Pi hardware unit fit together.
    What’s inside the new units.

    This case houses the Astro Pi units, the hardware young people use when they take part in the European Astro Pi Challenge. Designed by the amazing Jon Wells for the very first Astro Pi Challenge, which was part of Tim Peake’s Principia mission to the ISS in 2015, the case has become an iconic part of the Astro Pi journey for young people.

    Logo of the European Astro Pi Challenge.

    As Jon says: “The design of the original flight case, although functional, formed an emotional connection with the young people who took part in the programme and is an engaging and integral part of the experience of the Astro Pi.”

    People love to 3D print Astro Pi cases

    Although printing an Astro Pi case is absolutely not essential for participating in the European Astro Pi Challenge, many of the teams of young people who participate in Astro Pi Mission Space Lab, and create experiments to run on the Astro Pi units aboard the ISS, do print Astro Pi cases to house the hardware that we send them for testing their experiments.

    An aluminium-encased Astro Pi unit next to a 3D-printed Astro Pi unit replica.
    An aluminium Astro Pi case, and a 3D printed case.

    When we published the first how-to guide for 3D printing an Astro Pi case and making a working replica of the unit, it was immediately popular. We saw an exciting range of cases being produced. Some people (such as me) tried to make theirs look as similar as possible to the original aluminium Astro Pi flight unit, even using metallic spray paint to complete the effect. Others chose to go for a multicolour model, or even used glow-in-the-dark filament.

    So it wasn’t a huge surprise that when we announced that we were sending upgraded Astro Pi units to the ISS — with cases again designed by Jon Wells — we received a flurry of requests for the files needed to 3D print these new cases.

    The mark 2 Astro Pi units spin in microgravity on the International Space Station.
    The new Astro Pi units are on board the ISS now.

    Now that the commissioning of the new Astro Pi units, which arrived on board the International Space Station in December, is complete, we’ve been able to put together an all-new how-to guide to 3D printing your own Mark II Astro Pi case and assembling your own Astro Pi unit replica at home or in the classroom.

    The guide also includes step-by-step instructions to completing the internal wiring so you can construct a working Astro Pi unit. We’re provided a custom version of the self-test software that is used on the official Astro Pis, so you can check that everything is operational.

    If you’re new to 3D printing, you might like to try one of our BlocksCAD projects and practice printing a simpler design before you move on the the Astro Pi case.

    Changes and improvements to the guide

    We’ve made some changes to the original CAD designs to make printing the Mark II case parts and assembling a working Astro Pi replica unit as easy as possible. Unlike the STL files for the Mark I case, we’ve kept the upper and lower body components as single parts, rather than splitting each into two thinner halves. 3D printers have continued to improve since we wrote the first how-to guide. Most now have heated beds, which prevent warping, and we’ve successfully printed the Mark II parts on a range of affordable machines.

    An Astro Pi case front is being printed on a 3D printer.
    Printing an Astro Pi case.

    The guide contains lots of hints and tips for getting the best results. As usual with 3D printing, be prepared to make some tweaks for the particular printer that you use.

    In addition to the upper and lower case parts, there are also some extra components to print this time: the colour sensor window, the joystick cap, the Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera housing, and the legs that protect the lenses and allow the Astro Pi units on the ISS to be safely placed up against the nadir window.

    Four 3D-printed Astro Pi case fronts.
    You can choose between four variants of the upper case part.

    We’ve included files for four variants of the upper case part (see above). In order to keep costs down, the kits that we send to Astro Pi Mission Space Lab teams have a different PIR sensor to the ones of the proper Astro Pi units. So we’ve produced files for upper case parts that allow that sensor to be fitted. If you’re not taking part in the European Astro Pi Challenge, this also offers a cheaper alternative to creating an Astro Pi replica which still includes the motion detection capability:

    A 3D-printed Astro Pi unit replica.

    We’ve also provided versions for the upper case part that have smaller holes for the push buttons. So, if you don’t fancy splashing out on the supremely pressable authentic buttons, you can use other colourful alternatives, which typically have a smaller diameter.

    A 3D-printed Astro Pi unit replica with legs attached.
    The guide includes files for printing the Astro Pi’s protective legs.

    Do share photos of your 3D-printed Astro Pi cases with us by tweeting pictures of them to @astro_pi and @RaspberryPi_org.

    One week left to help young people make space history with Astro Pi Mission Zero

    It’s still not too late for young people to take part in this year’s Astro Pi beginners’ coding activity, Mission Zero, and suggest their ideas for the names for the two new Astro Pi units! Astro Pi Mission Zero is still open until next Friday, 18 March.

    Logo of Mission Zero, part of the European Astro Pi Challenge.

    Website: LINK

  • How did we build the new Astro Pi computers for the International Space Station?

    How did we build the new Astro Pi computers for the International Space Station?

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    We are really excited that our two upgraded Astro Pi units have arrived on the International Space Station. Each unit contains the latest model of the Raspberry Pi computer, plus a Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera and a host of sensors on a custom Sense HAT, all housed inside a special flight case designed to keep everything cool and protected. Here is the story of how the Astro Pi units were built:

    The upgraded Astro Pi units have been designed and built in collaboration with ESA Education, the European Space Agency’s education programme. The Astro Pis’ purpose is for young people to use them in the European Astro Pi Challenge. The film highlights the units’ exciting new features, such as a machine learning accelerator and new camera, which can capture high-quality images of Earth from space using both visible light and near-infrared light.

    Astro Pi MK II hardware plus a Coral machine learning accelerator.
    The new Astro Pi unit, with its camera and machine learning accelerator.

    There’s an extended team behind the new hardware and software, not just us working at the Raspberry Pi Foundation and the European Space Agency.

    “Thanks to our friends at ESA, and all the people who have shared their unique expertise and knowledge with us, […] we’ve managed to take two ordinary Raspberry Pi computers from the production line in Wales and see them end up on the International Space Station. It’s been a real privilege to get to work with such an amazing group of space professionals.”

    – Richard Hayler, Senior Programme Manager and lead engineer of the Astro Pi units

    The new Astro Pis are all ready to run young peoples’ computer programs as part of the European Astro Pi Challenge. The young people who successfully proposed experiments for the 2021/22 round of Astro Pi Mission Space Lab have just submitted their programs to us for testing. These programs will run the teams’ experiments on the new Astro Pis in May.

    Your young people’s code in space

    There is still time until 18 March to take part in the 2021/22 round of Astro Pi Mission Zero. Mission Zero is a beginners’ coding activity for all young people up to age 19 in ESA member and associate states. Mission Zero is free, can be completed online in an hour, and lets young people send their unique message to the astronauts on board the ISS.

    Logo of Mission Zero, part of the European Astro Pi Challenge.

    To take part, participants follow our step-by-step guide to write a simple Python program. Their program will display their message to the astronautsvia the Astro Pi’s LED display (complete with ‘sunglasses’). Parents or educators support the participants by signing up for a mentor code to submit the young people’s programs.

    All Mission Zero participants receive a certificate showing the exact time and location of the ISS when their program was run — their moment of space history to keep. And this year only, Mission Zero is extra special: participants can also help name the two new Astro Pi units! 

    The mark 2 Astro Pi units spin in microgravity on the International Space Station.

    You can watch ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer unpack and assemble the Astro Pi units in microgravity on board the ISS. It’s so exciting to work with the European Space Agency in order to send young people’s code into space. We hope you and your young people will take part in this year’s Astro Pi Challenge.

    PS If you want to build your own replica of the Astro Pi units, we’ve got a treat for you soon. Next week, we’ll share a step-by-step how-to guide, including 3D printing files.

    Website: LINK

  • Raspberry Pi computers are speeding to the International Space Station

    Raspberry Pi computers are speeding to the International Space Station

    Reading Time: 6 minutes

    This morning, our two new Astro Pi units launched into space. Actual, real-life space. The new Astro Pi units each consist of a Raspberry Pi computer with a Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera and a host of sensors, all housed inside a special space-ready case that makes the hardware suitable for the International Space Station (ISS).

    Astro Pi MK II hardware.

    The journey to space for two special Raspberry Pi computers

    Today’s launch is the culmination of a huge piece of work we’ve done for the European Space Agency to get the new Astro Pi units ready to become part of the European Astro Pi Challenge.

    Logo of the European Astro Pi Challenge.

    After lift-off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the new Astro Pi units are currently travelling on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon 2 spacecraft, the module atop the rocket. You can watch the launch again here.

    SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew Dragon spits fire as it lifts off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
    A SpaceX rocket is delivering the special Raspberry Pi computers to the ISS today. © SpaceX

    Also travelling with our Astro Pi units are food and some Christmas presents for the astronauts on board the ISS, materials for a study of the delivery of cancer drugs; a bioprinter for experiments investigating wound healing; and materials for a study of how detergents work in microgravity.

    The Dragon 2 spacecraft will berth with the ISS tomorrow, with NASA astronauts Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn monitoring its arrival. ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer and another colleague will be there to unpack its cargo. You can watch the process of unpacking tomorrow, Wed 22 December, at 8.30am GMT / 9.30am CET. In the new year, Matthias will be switching our Astro Pi units on and getting them ready to run the code written by young people participating in the European Astro Pi Challenge. The new Astro Pi units will replace Astro Pi units Ed and Izzy, which have been on the ISS for 6 years — ever since the very first Astro Pi Challenge with British ESA astronaut Tim Peake in 2015.

    The International Space Station.
    The International Space Station, where the special Raspberry Pi computers will arrive tomorrow, © ESA–L. Parmitano, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

    We’re looking forward to seeing the amazing experiments this year’s Astro Pi Mission Space Lab teams will perform on the new hardware, and what they’ll discover about life on Earth and in space. We also can’t wait to see what the young people participating in Astro Pi Mission Zero will name the new Astro Pi units!

    Building space-ready Astro Pi units

    None of us on the team working on the Astro Pi Challenge here at the Foundation are aerospace engineers. While building the new Astro Pi units, we’ve learned so much.

    Animation of how the components of the Mark 2 Astro Pi hardware unit fit together.

    To get the Astro Pis ready to be loaded onto the rocket has been a project of more than three years. That’s because, in addition to manufacturing the Astro Pi units, we also had to ensure they pass the necessary safety and certification process. The official name for this is the Safety Gate process. It’s been set up by ESA and NASA to ensure that any items sent to the ISS are safe to operate on board the station.

    For the three separate safety panels the Astro Pi units needed to get through, we put the units through different tests and completed various safety reports. The tests included:

    • A vibration test: To make sure the Astro Pi units survive the rigours of the launch, we tested them using the sophisticated rigs at Airbus in Portsmouth. These rigs are capable of simulating the vibrations produced by various different launch vehicles. We needed to test all possible options, because the Astro Pi units didn’t have a confirmed vehicle to travel to the ISS yet.
    A vibration test of the new Raspberry Pi-powered Astro Pi units at Airbus in Portsmouth
    • A thermal test: To make sure no harm can possibly come to the crew from the Astro Pi units, we needed to check that the touch temperature of the Astro Pi units’ surface is never above 45°C.
    • A heat test of the new Raspberry Pi-powered Astro Pi units.
    • A test for sharp edges: Each Astro Pi unit also needed to be manually inspected by someone wearing a latex glove who carefully feels the case for sharp edges.
    Testing the new Raspberry Pi-powered Astro Pi units for sharp edges using a latex glove.
    • Stringent, military-grade electromagnetic emissions and susceptibility tests: These are required to guarantee that the Astro Pi units won’t interfere with any ISS systems, and that the units themselves are not affected by other equipment on board.
    • EMC test of the new Raspberry Pi-powered Astro Pi units.
    • EMC test of the new Raspberry Pi-powered Astro Pi units.
    • We built two additional Astro Pi units and sent them to NASA so that they could test that plugging the units into the ISS power grid wouldn’t cause a power overload. 

    For almost all of these tests, we created custom software to do things like stress the Astro Pi units’ processors, saturate the network links, and generally make the units work as hard as possible. 

    To accompany these safety and test reports, we also had to create the Flight Safety Data Package (FSDP), which contains exact technical information about every component of the Astro Pi hardware, and about all the necessary safety controls to qualify the use of certain materials and safely manage operation of the units. The current FSDP paperwork stands at over 700 pages, which thankfully we haven’t had to actually print out!

    Young people’s code will run on the new Astro Pi units next year — is yours on board?

    All of this work culminated today in the Astro Pis being launched up into space from Cape Canaveral. And we’re doing all this so that more young people can take part in the European Astro Pi Challenge and send messages to the ISS astronauts using code as part of Mission Zero, or write code for new, ambitious experiments to run on the ISS as part of Mission Space Lab.

    • Logo of Mission Space Lab, part of the European Astro Pi Challenge.
    • Logo of Mission Zero, part of the European Astro Pi Challenge.

    Young people can take part in Astro Pi Mission Zero right now! Mission Zero is a beginners’ coding activity for all young people under the age of 19 in ESA member and associate states. It gives them the chance to write code to show their own message to the astronauts on board the ISS using the Astro Pi units. And this time, Mission Zero participants can also vote to name the new Astro Pi units!

    To participate, young people follow our step-by-step instructions to write their Mission Zero code. As an adult supporting a young person on Mission Zero, all you need to do is sign up as a mentor to get them a registration code for their Mission Zero entry. Once your young person’s code has run in space, we’ll send you a special certificate for them showing where the ISS, and the Astro Pi computers, were when their code ran.

    Inspire a young person to learn about coding and space science today with Astro Pi Mission Zero!

    Website: LINK

  • Young people can name a piece of space history with Astro Pi Mission Zero

    Young people can name a piece of space history with Astro Pi Mission Zero

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    Your young people don’t need to wait to become astronauts to be part of a space mission! In Mission Zero, the free beginners’ coding activity of the European Astro Pi Challenge, young people can create a simple computer program to send to the International Space Station (ISS) today.

    The International Space Station.
    The International Space Station, where your young people’s Mission Zero code could run soon! © ESA–L. Parmitano, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

    This year, young people taking part in Astro Pi Mission Zero have the historic chance to help name the special Raspberry Pi computers we are sending up to the ISS for the Astro Pi Challenge. Their voices will decide the names of these unique pieces of space exploration hardware.

    Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti in the ISS's cupola.
    Samantha Cristoforetti is one of the ESA astronauts who will be on the ISS when young people’s Mission Zero code runs. © ESA

    Your young people can become part of a space mission today!

    The European Astro Pi Challenge is a collaboration by us and ESA Education. Astro Pi Mission Zero is free, open to all young people up to age 19 from eligible countries*, and it’s designed for beginner coders.

    Logo of Mission Zero, part of the European Astro Pi Challenge.

    You can support participants easily, whether at home, in the classroom, or in a youth club. Simply sign up as a mentor and let your young people follow the step-by-step instructions we provide (in 19 European languages!) for writing their Mission Zero code online. Young people can complete Mission Zero in around an hour, and they don’t need any previous coding experience.

    A mother and daughter do a coding activity together at a laptop at home.

    Mission Zero is the perfect coding activity for parents and their children at home, for STEM or Scouts club leaders and attendees, and for teachers and students who are new to computer programming. You don’t need any special tech for Mission Zero participants. Any computer with a web browser and internet connection works for Mission Zero, because everything is done online.

    We need young people to help name the Raspberry Pis we’re sending to space

    Mission Zero participants follow our step-by-step instructions to create a simple program that takes a humidity reading on board the ISS and displays it for the astronauts — together with the participants’ own unique messages. And as part of their messages, they can vote for the name of the new hardware for the Astro Pi Challenge, hardware with Raspberry Pi computers at its heart.

    Astro Pi MK II hardware.
    The shiny new Raspberry Pi-powered hardware for the Astro Pi Challenge, which will replace the Raspberry Pi-powered Astro Pi units that have run Astro Pi participants’ code on board the ISS every year since 2015.

    The new Astro Pi hardware, which will travel up in a rocket to the ISS on 21 December, is so new that these special augmented computers don’t even have names yet. Participants in Astro Pi Mission Zero get to vote for a name inspired by our list of ten renowned European scientists. Their vote will be part of the message they send to space.

    SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew Dragon spits fire as it lifts off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
    A SpaceX rocket will deliver the special Raspberry Pi computers to the ISS. © SpaceX

    What do your young people want to say in space?

    Your young people’s messages to the ISS astronauts can say anything they like (apart from swear words, of course). Maybe they want to send some encouraging words to the astronauts or tell them a joke. They can even design a cool pixel art image to show on the Astro Pi hardware’s display:

    Pixel art from Astro Pi Mission Zero participants.
    Some of the pixel art from last year’s Astro Pi Mission Zero participants.

    Whatever else they code for their Mission Zero entry, they’re supporting the astronauts with their important work on board the ISS. Since Mission Zero participants tell the Astro Pi hardware to read and display the humidity level inside the ISS, they provide helpful information for the astronauts as they go about their tasks.

    Their own place in space history

    After a participant’s Mission Zero code has run and their message has been shown in the ISS, we’ll send you a special certificate for them so you can commemorate their space mission.

    • A tweet about school children who participated in Astro Pi Mission Zero.
    • A tweet about a young person who participated in Astro Pi Mission Zero.

    The certificate will feature their name, the exact date and time their code ran, and a world map to mark the place on Earth above which the ISS was while their message was visible up there in space.

    10 key things about Astro Pi Mission Zero

    1. It’s young people’s unique chance to be part of a real space mission
    2. Participation is free
    3. Participants send the ISS astronauts their own unique message
    4. This year only, participants can help name the two special Raspberry Pi computers that are travelling up to the ISS
    5. Mission Zero is open to young people up to age 19 who live in eligible countries (more about eligibility here)
    6. It’s a beginners’ coding activity with step-by-step instructions, available in 19 languages
    7. Completing the activity takes about one hour — at home, in the classroom, or in a Scouts or coding club session
    8. The activity can be done online in a web browser on any computer
    9. Participants will receive a special certificate to help celebrate their space mission
    10. Mission Zero is open until 18 March 2022

    If you don’t want to let any young people in your life miss out on this amazing opportunity, sign up as their Mission Zero mentor today.

    * The European Astro Pi Challenge is run as a collaboration by us at the Raspberry Pi Foundation and ESA Education. That’s why participants need to be from an ESA Member State, or from Slovenia, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, or Malta, which have agreements with ESA.

    If you live elsewhere, it’s possible to partner with Mission Zero mentors and young people in an eligible country. You can work together to support the young people to form international Mission Zero teams that write programs together.

    If you live elsewhere and cannot partner with people in an eligible country, Mission Zero is still an awesome and inspiring project for your young people to try out coding. While these young people’s code unfortunately won’t run on the ISS, they will receive a certificate to mark their efforts.

    Website: LINK

  • Nearly 15,000 young people ran their code on the ISS for Astro Pi 2020/21!

    Nearly 15,000 young people ran their code on the ISS for Astro Pi 2020/21!

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    Our team here at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, in collaboration with ESA Education, is excited to announce the successful deployment of young people’s programs aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for the European Astro Pi Challenge 2020/21!

    Logo of the European Astro Pi Challenge.

    Across both Astro Pi missions — Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab — 14,993 participants created an amazing 9408 programs, which have now run aboard the ISS’s two special Raspberry Pi computers: the Astro Pis Izzy and Ed. Congratulations to all for their achievements during this challenging year!

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSVzOvDiJnM?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet congratulates all of this year’s Astro Pi teams

    Mission Zero: Popular as ever

    This year, 14,054 young people from 24 countries successfully took part in Mission Zero: the Astro Pi computers aboard the ISS ran their programs for 30 seconds each.

    In Mission Zero, young people write programs to measure the humidity inside the ISS Columbus module using the Sense HAT add-on of the Astro Pi, and then use the Sense HAT’s LED matrix to display the measurement together with their very own message to the astronauts. This year that included ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who oversaw the deployment of both the Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab programs.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=279y5U9TXgY?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    This year’s Mission Zero programs running aboard the ISS

    To make it easier for young people to participate in Mission Zero while school closures and restrictions on face-to-face meetings were in place to help stop the spread of coronavirus, we updated the Mission Zero rules this year: for the first time, young people could take part by themselves as well as in teams. As we had hoped, this new option proved hugely popular, with 6308 entries coming from individual participants. Despite the challenging circumstances, this year’s number of Mission Zero participants was just 5% lower than last year’s — a sure sign of how much young people love Astro Pi!

    Mission Space Lab: Investigating life in space and on Earth

    In addition to the Mission Zero participants, 232 teams of in total 939 students and young people are currently in their final phase of Astro Pi Mission Space Lab. Over the last month, each team had the program for their scientific experiment run on either Astro Pi Ed or Astro Pi Izzy for three hours each.

    Compilation of photographs of Earth, taken by Astro Pi Izzy aboard the ISS.
    Photographs of Earth, taken by Astro Pi Izzy aboard the ISS

    Teams conducting ‘Life on Earth’ experiments used Astro Pi Izzy’s near-infrared camera to capture images of the planet’s surface. Their experiments include predicting weather patterns by analysing cloud formations, assessing the impact of climate change by investigating reductions in vegetation cover over time using NDVI, and studying variations in the Earth’s magnetic field.

    Teams conducting ‘Life in space’ experiments used Astro Pi Ed’s sensors to investigate life inside the ISS Columbus module. Their experiments include measuring the direction and force of gravity inside the Space Station, analysing the air quality onboard, and calculating the position and direction of the Space Station in orbit.

    All Mission Space Lab teams have now received their data back from the ISS so they can analyse it and summarise their findings in their final scientific reports. To grant teams enough time to complete their reports while social distancing measures may be in place, we have extended the submission deadline to 12 pm (noon) BST on Monday 28 June 2021!

    It’s cosy inside the ISS!

    Despite its relatively large size of 109 metres, the ISS only has enough sleeping pods for seven astronauts. However, sometimes there can be more than seven astronauts onboard: usually when one group prepares to leave as another arrives. Recently, a whole eleven astronauts were aboard the ISS, which meant that they had to get creative about where to settle down for sleep.

    For Ed and Izzy, our Astro Pi computers, a large crowd such as this can cause some complications! For one thing, ‘crew bumping’ is more likely, which is when the USB cable connecting an Astro Pi to power can become accidentally unplugged because an astronaut collides with it in the small space of the Columbus module. And this time, the snug sleeping situation made one of the crew members request permission to cover Astro Pi Ed’s LED display during the ‘night’! Why? The astronaut was ‘bedding down’ directly opposite Ed, and the light from the display was making sleep difficult! That just goes to show that, even in space, it’s really best to avoid bright light if you need a good night’s sleep.

    ESA Astronaut Thomas Pesquet with the Astro Pi computers onboard the ISS.
    ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet with the Astro Pi computers aboard the ISS

    Who will win Mission Space Lab 2020/21?

    We and our collaborators at ESA Education have appointed a jury of experts to judge all the Mission Space Lab Phase 4 final reports and select the 10 teams with the best reports as the winners of the 2020/21 round of Mission Space Lab. Each of the 10 winning teams will receive a special prize: an invitation to a webinar with an ESA astronaut where they can directly ask them their questions about life in space!

    Congratulations again to all the teams that have taken part in the European Astro Pi Challenge this year. Mission Space Lab teams, we can’t wait to read your reports!

    Website: LINK

  • How young people can run their computer programs in space with Astro Pi

    How young people can run their computer programs in space with Astro Pi

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    Do you know young people who dream of sending something to space? You can help them make that dream a reality!

    We’re calling on educators, club leaders, and parents to inspire young people to develop their digital skills by participating in this year’s European Astro Pi Challenge.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYGgcevyqWg?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The European Astro Pi Challenge, which we run in collaboration with the European Space Agency, gives young people in 26 countries* the opportunity to write their own computer programs and run them on two special Raspberry Pi units — called Astro Pis! — on board the International Space Station (ISS).

    This year’s Astro Pi ambassador is ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet. Thomas will accompany our Astro Pis on the ISS and oversee young people’s programs while they run.

    And the young people need your support to take part in the Astro Pi Challenge!

    A group of young people and educators smiling while engaging with a computer

    Astro Pi is back big-time!

    The Astro Pi Challenge is back and better than ever, with a brand-new website, a cool new look, and the chance for more young people to get involved.

    Logo of the European Astro Pi Challenge

    During the last challenge, a record 6558 Astro Pi programs from over 17,000 young people ran on the ISS, and we want even more young people to take part in our new 2020/21 challenge.

    British ESA astronaut Tim Peake was the ambassador of the first Astro Pi Challenge in 2015.

    So whether your children or learners are complete beginners to programming or have experience of Python coding, we’d love for them to take part!

    You and your young people have two Astro Pi missions to choose from: Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab.

    Mission Zero — for beginners and younger programmers

    In Mission Zero, young people write a simple program to take a humidity reading onboard the ISS and communicate it to the astronauts with a personalised message, which will be displayed for 30 seconds.

    Logo of Mission Zero, part of the European Astro Pi Challenge

    Mission Zero is designed for beginners and younger participants up to 14 years old. Young people can complete Mission Zero online in about an hour following a step-by-step guide. Taking part doesn’t require any previous coding experience or specific hardware.

    All Mission Zero participants who follow the simple challenge rules are guaranteed to have their programs run aboard the ISS in 2021.

    All you need to do is support the young people to submit their programs!

    Mission Zero is a perfect activity for beginners to digital making and Python programming, whether they’re young people at home or in coding clubs, or groups of students or club participants.

    We have made some exciting changes to this year’s Mission Zero challenge:

    1. Participants will be measuring humidity on the ISS instead of temperature
    2. For the first time, young people can enter individually, as well as in teams of up to 4 people

    You have until 19 March 2021 to support your young people to submit their Mission Zero programs!

    Mission Space Lab — for young people with programming experience

    In Mission Space Lab, teams of young people design and program a scientific experiment to run for 3 hours onboard the ISS.

    Logo of Mission Space Lab, part of the European Astro Pi Challenge

    Mission Space Lab is aimed at more experienced or older participants up to 19 years old, and it takes place in 4 phases over the course of 8 months.

    Your role in Mission Space Lab is to mentor a team of participants while they design and write a program for a scientific experiment that increases our understanding of either life on Earth or life in space.

    The best experiments will be deployed to the ISS, and teams will have the opportunity to analyse their experimental data and report on their results.

    You have until 23 October 2020 to register your team and their experiment idea.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCFF_e1rSTI?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    To see the kind of experiments young people have run on the ISS, check out our blog post congratulating the Mission Space Lab 2019/20 winners!

    Get started with Astro Pi today!

    To find out more about taking part in the European Astro Pi Challenge 2020/21, head over to our new and improved astro-pi.org website.

    screenshot of Astro Pi home page

    There, you’ll find everything you need to get started on sending young people’s computer program to space!

    * ESA Member States in 2020: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Latvia, and the United Kingdom. Other participating states: Canada, Latvia, Slovenia, Malta.

    Website: LINK

  • 6558 programs from young people have run on the ISS for Astro Pi 2019/20!

    6558 programs from young people have run on the ISS for Astro Pi 2019/20!

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    The team at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, in collaboration with ESA Education, is excited to announce that all of this year’s successful Astro Pi programs have now run aboard the International Space Station (ISS)!

    Record numbers of young people took part in Astro Pi Mission Zero

    This year, a record 6350 teams of students and young people from all 25 eligible countries successfully entered Mission Zero, and they had their programs run on the Astro Pi computers on board the ISS for 30 seconds each!

    ESA astronaut Chris Cassidy with an Astro Pi computer aboard the ISS

    Astronaut Chris Cassidy overseeing the Mission Zero experiments

    The Mission Zero teams measured the temperature inside the ISS Columbus module, and used the Astro Pi LED matrix to display the measurement together with a greeting to the astronauts, including Chris Cassidy, who oversaw this year’s experiments.

    Mission Space Lab: Investigating life in space and on Earth

    In addition, 208 teams of students and young people are currently in the final phase of Astro Pi Mission Space Lab. Over the last few weeks, each of these teams has had their scientific experiment run on either Astro Pi Ed or Astro Pi Izzy for 3 hours each.

    Photograph of Earth, taken by Astro Pi computer Izzy

    Astro Pi Izzy’s view of Earth

    Teams interested in  life on Earth used Astro Pi Izzy’s near-infrared camera to capture images to investigate, for example, vegetation health and the impact of human life on our planet. Using Astro Pi Ed’s sensors, participants investigated life in space, measuring the conditions on the ISS and even mapping the magnetic field of Earth.

    Program deployment, but not as we know it

    This year, we encountered a problem during the deployment of some experiments investigating life on Earth. When we downloaded the first batch of data from the ISS, we realised that Astro Pi Izzy had an incorrect setting, which resulted in some pictures turning pink. And not only that: the CANADARM was the middle of Izzy’s window view!

    The CANADARM from Astro Pi Izzy’s view of Earth

    The CANADARM from Astro Pi Izzy’s view of Earth

    Needless to say, this would have had a negative impact on many experiments, so we put in a special request to NASA to remove the CANADARM arm and we reset Izzy. This meant that program deployment took longer than normal, but we managed to re-run all experiments and capture some fantastic images!

    All Mission Space Lab teams have now received their data back from the ISS to analyse and summarise in their final scientific reports. So that they can write their reports while social distancing measures are in place, we are sharing special guidance and advice on how best to collaborate remotely, and have extended the submission deadline to 3 July 2020.

    Who will win Mission Space Lab 2019/20?

    The programs teams sent us this year were outstanding in their quality, creativity, and technical skill. A jury of experts appointed by ESA and the Raspberry Pi Foundation will judge all of the Mission Space Lab reports and select the 10 teams with the best reports as the winners of the European Astro Pi Challenge 2019/20. Each of the 10 winning teams will receive a special prize.

    Astro Pi Mission Space Lab logo

    Congratulations to all the teams that have taken part in Astro Pi Mission Space Lab this year. We hope that you found it as interesting and as fun as we did, we can’t wait to read your reports!

    Celebrating your achievements

    Every team that participated in Mission Zero or Mission Space Lab this year will receive a special certificate in celebration of their achievements during the European Astro Pi Challenge. The Mission Zero certificates will feature the coordinates of the ISS when your programs were run!

    We’d love to see pictures of your certificates hanging in your homes, schools, or clubs, so tag us in your tweets with @astro_pi!

    Website: LINK

  • Astro Pi Mission Zero: guarantee your code’s place in space

    Astro Pi Mission Zero: guarantee your code’s place in space

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Today is the official launch day of Astro Pi Mission Zero, part of the 2018–2019 European Astro Pi Challenge, an ESA Education programme run in collaboration with us at Raspberry Pi. In this challenge, students and young people get the chance to have their computer programs run in space on the International Space Station!

    Astro Pi Mission Zero 2018/19

    Text an astronaut!

    Students and young people will have until 20 March 2019 to from teams and write a simple program to display their personal message to the astronauts onboard. The Mission Zero activity can be completed in a couple of hours with just a computer and an internet connection. You don’t need any special equipment or prior coding skills, and all participants that follow the guidelines are guaranteed to have their programs run in space.

    Translations

    This year, to help many more people take part in their native language, we have 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.

    Take part in Astro Pi Mission Zero

    To participate, the teams’ teacher or mentor needs to register for a classroom code that will let students submit their programs. Teams then follow our online resource to write their programs using the browser-based Trinket emulator: with just a few lines of Python, your team will create a program for one of the two Astro Pi computers aboard the ISS!

    Astro Pi Mission Zero 2018/19

    Each team’s program will run for 30 seconds aboard the Space Station, visible for all the astronauts including this year’s challenge ambassadors: ESA astronaut and ISS Commander Alexander Gerst and CSA astronaut David Saint-Jacques.

    Astro Pi returns for a new 2018/19 challenge!

    Ever wanted to run your own experiment in space? Then you’re in luck! ESA Education, in collaboration with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, is pleased to announce the launch of the 2018/2019 European Astro Pi Challenge!

    Every team that submits a valid Mission Zero entry will also receive a certificate showing the flight path of the ISS above Earth at the exact time their code ran!

    Astro Pi Mission Zero 2018/19

    The challenge is open to teams of students and young people who are aged 14 years or younger (at the time of submission) and from ESA Member or Associate Member States*. The teams must have at least two and no more than four members, and they must be supervised by an adult teacher or mentor.

    Have fun, and say hi to the astronauts from us!

    About the European Astro Pi Challenge

    The European Astro Pi Challenge is an ESA Education project run in collaboration with the Raspberry Pi Foundation. It offers students and young people the amazing opportunity to conduct scientific investigations in space by writing computer programs that run on Raspberry Pi computers on board the International Space Station (ISS). The Astro Pi Challenge is divided into two separate missions with different levels of complexity: Mission Zero (the basic mission), and Mission Space Lab (one step further). This year’s Mission Space Lab is closing for applications at the end of October. Click here for more information about it.

    *ESA Member States in 2018:
    Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.

    ESA Associate States in 2018: Canada, Slovenia
    In the framework of the current collaboration agreement between ESA and the Republic of Malta, teams from Malta can also participate in the European Astro Pi Challenge. ESA will also accept entries from primary or secondary schools located outside an ESA Member or Associate State only if such schools are officially authorised and/or certified by the official Education authorities of an ESA Member or Associate State (for instance, French school outside Europe officially recognised by the French Ministry of Education or delegated authority).

    Website: LINK