Astro Pi
|
Astro Pi 2024-25 updates!
Post Primary Level
Kick-off date: 16 September 2024
Suggested for: up to 19 years old
Have you ever dreamt of creating an experiment that could run in space? It’s easier than you think! All you need to do is write a computer program for our special Raspberry Pi computers, called Astro Pis, which are located on the International Space Station (ISS).
- Mission Zero: It will open on 16 September and close on 24 March. The task will be, as last year, to measure light intensity and display an image in the LED matrix. The theme is still Flora and Fauna, however, this year we will encourage teams to explore flora and fauna in alien worlds, to spark their creativity.
- Mission Space Lab: It will open on 16 September and close on 24 February. The challenge will remain to measure the speed of the ISS. An online version of the testing software will be made available, as an alternative to the downloadable software.
Register at astro-pi.org, teams can already register for Mission Zero.
|
What is the European Astro Pi challenge?
Primary & Post Primary Level
The European Space Agency and the Raspberry Pi Foundation invite young people to join the brand-new European Astro Pi Challenge 2024-2025. Get involved in the amazing opportunity to send your computer program to space!
Mission Zero
In Astro Pi Mission Zero, the challenge’s simpler category, teams of young people write a simple Python program to take a reading using the colour sensor on one of the ISS Astro Pi computers and display a personalised pixel art image for the astronauts on board the ISS.
This coding activity can be completed in around one hour, for example during a school lesson or coding club session. It can be done in a web browser, on any computer with internet access. No special equipment or coding skills are needed, and all teams that follow the guidelines will have their program run in space.
The theme for the 2024-2025 is ‘fauna and flora’: young people are invited to program inspiring pixel art images or animations of plants and wildlife that will display on the Astro Pis’ LED screen, to remind the astronauts aboard the ISS of Earth’s natural wonders.
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. Participants will receive a personalised certificate that will show the exact start and end time of their program’s run, and the position of the ISS while their program ran.
A renewed Mission Space Lab
In this year’s Mission Space Lab – the challenge’s more advanced category – ESA astronauts are inviting teams of young people to write computer programs to solve a specific scientific challenge: to measure as accurately as possible the speed that the International Space Station (ISS) is travelling. To achieve this, teams can use the Astro Pi computers’ sensors (sense HAT) and camera to gather data about the orientation and motion of the ISS as it orbits the Earth
Thanks to this new format, ESA and the Raspberry Pi Foundation made it possible for many more teams to run their programs in space and get a taste of space science.
Sign up for Astro Pi news
You can keep updated with all the latest Astro Pi news by signing up to the newsletter at astro-pi.org. Contact us for any questions at enquiries@astro-pi.org.
|
Astro Pi Classroom Resources
Primary & Post Primary Level
Astro Pi is the name of a small computer developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, in collaboration with the UK Space Agency and the European Space Agency (ESA). With this first set of activities you are going to assemble your Raspberry Pi for the first time and learn the essential coding language that you need to program your Astro Pi.
- Getting started with Astro Pi – teach with space | T05.1
Download the student activities.
The Sense HAT is an add-on board for Raspberry Pi that was created for the Astro Pi competition. In this set of activities you will explore the Sense HAT hardware and its Python library. You will learn how to control the LED matrix and how to display visual output.
2. Meet the sense hat – teach with space | T05.2
Download the student activities.
During the European Astro Pi Challenge, Astro Pi Ed onboard the International Space Station (ISS) will be collecting a range of data using its sensors. In this set of activities you will explore life conditions onboard the ISS and compare them with life conditions on Earth using the Sense HAT sensors to sense the space around you.
3. How to collect data from the Astro Pi – teach with space | T05.3
Download the student activities.
4. Meet the Astro Pi Cameras T05.4
Students will learn how to assemble and program Astro Pi cameras for capturing images and videos, using a Raspberry Pi and the Python programming language
