NASA’s Out-of-This-World High School Engineering Contest

August 26, 2010 — Are you always designing and building things? If you answered yes and are in high school, then NASA has a competition for you that is out-of-this-world. NASA is challenging high school teams to design software to program small satellites aboard the International Space Station. The competition centers on the Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites, or SPHERES. SPHERES are bowling ball-sized spherical satellites used to test maneuvers for spacecraft performing autonomous rendezvous and docking. Three of these satellites fly inside the station's cabin. Each is self-contained with power, propulsion, computing, and navigation equipment. The Zero-Robotics investigation, run by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is designed to inspire future scientists and engineers. The teams are asked to address challenges of satellite docking, assembly and flight formation. The 2010 Zero-Robotics Challenge expands on a limited pilot program performed in fall 2009. This expanded pilot, called HelioSPHERES, will involve high schools from across the country during the 2010-2011 academic year. This new education program builds critical engineering skills for students, such as problem solving, design thought process, operations training, team work and presentation skills. The first 100 high school teams to register by September 10 will be selected for the competition. Their full proposals are due by September 14. Next, 20 teams selected from the 100 candidates will compete using simulations and ground-based testing at MIT. The software of the top 10 winners will be sent to the station, and an astronaut aboard the orbiting laboratory will program the SPHERES satellites to run the students' tests. More information and registration instructions are available here.

Pictured are three bowling ball-sized, free-flying satellites called Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station. SPHERES were designed to test control algorithms for spacecraft by performing autonomous rendezvous and docking maneuvers inside the station. The results are important for multi-body control and in designing constellation and array spacecraft configurations. Photo credit: NASA

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