NASA, MIT, DARPA Host Fourth Annual Student Robotic Challenge Jan. 11

Jan. 10, 2013

Joshua Buck
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
jbuck@nasa.gov

Sarah McDonnell
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
617-253-8923
s_mcd@mit.edu

MEDIA ADVISORY: M13-012

NASA, MIT, DARPA HOST FOURTH ANNUAL STUDENT ROBOTIC CHALLENGE JAN. 11

WASHINGTON -- NASA will join the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and
high school student teams from the United States and abroad for the
fourth annual Zero Robotics SPHERES Challenge Friday, Jan. 11. The
event will take place on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Mass., and be
broadcast live on NASA Television beginning at 8:30 a.m. EST.

For the competition, NASA will upload software developed by high
school students onto Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient,
Experimental Satellites (SPHERES), which are bowling ball-sized
spherical satellites aboard the International Space Station. The top
45 teams from previous competitions had their code sent last week to
the space station, where an astronaut will command the satellites to
execute the teams' flight program. During a simulated mission, the
teams will complete a special challenge inspired by future satellite
technologies, such as formation flight and close proximity
operations.

Student finalists will be able to see their flight program live in the
televised finals. The team with the highest software performance over
several rounds of the competition will win the challenge. The winning
team will receive certificates and a SPHERES flight patch that was
flown aboard the space station.

News media wishing to cover this event must contact Sarah McDonnell at
MIT at 617-253-8923 or s_mcd@mit.edu. NASA officials will be
available to speak with news media after the competition.

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

NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., operates and
maintains the SPHERES National Laboratory Facility on the station.

For more information about SPHERES, visit:

http://go.nasa.gov/SPHERES

For NASA TV schedule and video streaming information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

For more about the Zero Robotics Program, visit:

http://go.nasa.gov/zero-robotics

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station


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