MagPi31-single

ASTRO Pi
News
Sensors include
a gyroscope,
accelerometer,
magnetometer,
temperature
sensor, barometric
pressure sensor and
humidity sensor
Light speed is available
– at least from the 8×8
RGB LED display
The major
couldn’t be at the
competition opening at
BETT (education technology
show), where the Pi Foundation
was out in force – being an
astronaut involves a lot of training
and not much getting out to events
– but he was there virtually, in
cartoon form. Take a look at the
competition launch video at
vimeo.com/117274487, where
Major Tim explains that “brilliant
as the tech is, it’s nothing without
you. We need your ideas for space
experiments using the kit, and your
code, to make it work.”
The possibilities seem endless,
but to help focus creative thinking
about the uses of the Astro Pi, there
are five themes to the competition:
> Spacecraft Sensors,
> Satellite Imaging,
> Space Measurements,
> Data Fusion and
> Space Radiation.
The entries will be judged on
creativity, originality, practicality
and usefulness.
Ground control
We got to speak about the Astro
Pi with Libby Jackson – the UK
Space Agency’s astronaut flight
education programme manager,
who is supporting Tim Peake’s
flight to the International Space
Station in 2015/16. Before joining
the UK Space Agency, she was a
Columbus flight director, working
at the Columbus Control Centre in
Munich, Germany – the European
control centre for the ISS – and
she is passionately enthusiastic
about every aspect of the space
programme: “I’ve been working
on manned space flight for most
of my career, and to be back
in the UK working on the first
government-supported manned
British mission is fantastic.”
We ask her about the
possibilities of real and useful
measurements with the Astro Pi
on board the ISS. What is the
UK Space Agency expecting?
“I know we’ll be surprised,”
Jackson tells us. “Every time we
run competitions, children in the
UK – and children generally –
always have amazing ideas that we
WINNING OPPORTUNITY
The Astro Pi competition is open to pupils of all
ages. In the primary school age category, teams
are asked to “devise and describe an original
idea for an experiment or application which can
be conducted on the Astro Pi by Tim during his
mission.” The two best submissions will get the
opportunity to work with the Astro Pi team to
interpret their ideas; the programmers at the
Raspberry Pi Foundation will then code them,
ready for flight on the ISS.
For secondary schools, there are three age
categories – 11-13, 14-16, and 16+, corresponding
to Key Stages 3, 4 and 5 in England and Wales. In
the first phase, competitors submit their ideas for
experiments and applications, with at least the
best 50 submissions in each age category winning
a Raspberry Pi computer and an Astro Pi board on
which to code their idea. In phase two, teams will
“develop code based on their original concept,”
and two winning teams will be selected in each age
category. The deadline is 3 April 2015 for concepts,
and 29 June 2015 for final code.
The winning teams’ code will be readied for flight
by the Raspberry Pi Foundation and CGI, have their
code uploaded to the ISS, each receive a class set
of Raspberry Pi and Astro Pi boards, meet the Astro
Pi team, and participate in a winners event during
Tim’s flight. Extra prizes will be supplied by each of
the UK space firms supporting the project.
raspberrypi.org/magpi March 2015
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