GeekTechStuff

Did anyone else want to be an astronaut growing up? I think it is one of the dreams all kids have and one that got me into astronomy for quite some time. Back in October 2017 the Code Club I run entered a fantastic event called “Mission Zero” as part of Astro Pi 2017.

Young people got to write a piece of Python programming and as along as it met certain requirements (run in 30 seconds, display a message and give a temperature reading) then it would be given “flight” status and would be run on the International Space Station (ISS).

In December 2017 I received an e-mail to say that the programming written by the Code Club is a success and that it would be run. Today (31st Jan 2018) Astro Pi announced that all the successful codes will be run on 1st February 2018 (to be known as Mission Zero day). In total over 2500 entries for Mission Zero were received, a whopping 1771 Python programs got “Flight” status and it will take around 14 hours for the programs to run.

To me this is great, code written by young people attending the Code Club will be run in space on a space station. The event is a brilliant way to not only inspire young people to program but also to show them that their coding can end up in the greatest of places. Well done to all that entered Astro Pi Mission Zero, and I can’t wait for the Astro Pi 2018 event.

Original Blog Post:
https://geektechstuff.wordpress.com/2017/10/01/astro-pi-salford-and-manchester-weekend-code-club/

Link to Salford & Manchester Code Club:
https://madlab.org.uk/groups/code-club/

Further Links on Astro Pi:
https://astro-pi.org/missions/zero/
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/astro-pi-mission-zero-day/
http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/edu/European_Astro_Pi_Challenge_Mission_Zero_guidelines.pdf