The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) held a competition on January 23rd, 2012 to program tiny NASA robotic satellites on board the International Space Station.
The winners of the Zero Robotics SPHERES Challenge included Alliance CyberAvo from Europe and Alliance Rocket from the US.
About 200 high school students wrote a programming code for two tiny robotic satellites on board the station. Astronauts, Andre Kuipers and Don Pettit, collected information from the SPHERES flight programs, which were controlled by students, after each stage of the competition. Both former and current astronauts, including Leland Melvin, Greg Chamitoff, Jeff Hoffman, John Grunsfeld and spaceflight participant Richard Garriott were present at MIT to share their space experiences with the high school students.
The winners consisted of three teams. The Alliance Rocket teams included River Hill High School, Team Rocket, Clarksville, Md.; Branchburg, N.J., Storming Robots, Defending Champions; and Rockledge High School/Brevard County, Fla. and SPHEREZ of Influence.
Alliance CyberAvo included I.T.I.S., CyberAvo, Amedeo Avogrado, Turin, Italy; Lazy, Heinrich Hertz Gymnasium, Berlin, Germany, and Ultima, Kaethe Kollwitz Oberschule, Berlin, Germany.
Overall, 36 teams took part in the competition.
Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator, stated that it is astounding to note what these students have achieved and to program robotic satellites with an accuracy of a NASA flight controller is a significant achievement by itself. Such immense talent and ability at a young age is rather amazing.
NASA, MIT and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency sponsored the Zero Robotics SPHERES Challenge. The competition is in line with the agency's objective of inspiring students to study and follow careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett operates the SPHERES National Laboratory.
Source: http://www.nasa.gov/