Software Developed By High School Students To Be Uploaded To ISS

NASA participated in the fifth annual Zero Robotics SPHERES Challenge Friday, Jan. 17, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus in Cambridge, MA. The agency joined in the event with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, MIT, the European Space Agency, the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, IT consulting firm Appirio, and high school student teams from the United States and abroad.

For the competition, NASA uploaded software developed by high school students onto bowling ball-sized spherical satellites called Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites, or SPHERES, which are currently aboard the International Space Station. From there, space station Expedition 38 Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineer Richard Mastracchio commanded the satellites to execute the teams' flight program.

During a simulated mission, the teams completed a special challenge called CosmoSPHERES, a competition in which students must program their satellites to alter a fictional comet's earthbound trajectory.

Student finalists were able to see their flight program live on the televised finals, where NASA's Associate Administrator for Science, John Grunsfeld, and retired NASA astronauts Gregory Chamitoff, Gregory Johnson and Barbara Morgan made a special appearance. The team with the best software performance over several rounds of the competition wins the challenge. The winning team will receive certificates and a SPHERES flight patch flown aboard the space station.

In addition to their use in this competition, SPHERES satellites are used on the space station to conduct formation flight maneuvers for spacecraft guidance navigation, control and docking. The three satellites that make up SPHERES fly in formation inside the space station's cabin. The satellites provide opportunities to affordably test a wide range of hardware and software.

(NASA Image from file)

FMI: www.nasa.gov/nasatv