European Astro Pi Challenge: Mission Space Lab winners

This year, as well as being tasked with designing and carrying out their very own in-orbit investigation with the Astro Pis, student teams were asked to write a scientific report highlighting their results. The quality of the reports, and the scientific process on show was very high. After much deliberation, ESA Education and the Raspberry Pi Foundation were able to select the ten most outstanding reports. 

“The time spent on this project broadened our thinking horizons - this was a cosmic adventure” - Deep Sky, Poland

And the ten winning teams are…

The Dark Side of Light from Branksome Hall, Canada, investigated if the light pollution in an area could be used to determine the source of energy for the electricity consumption of the area.

Spaceballs from Attert Lycée Redange, Luxembourg, successfully calculated the speed of the ISS by analysing ground photographs.

Enrico Fermi from Liceo XXV Aprile, Italy investigated the link between the Astro Pi’s magnetometer and x-ray measurements from the GOES-15 satellite.

Team Aurora from Hyvinkään yhteiskoulun lukio, Finland showed how the Astro Pi’s magnetometer could be used to map the Earth’s magnetic field and determine the latitude of the ISS.

@stroMega from Institut de Genech, France used Astro Pi Izzy’s near-infrared to measure the health and density of vegetation here on Earth.

Ursa Major from a CoderDojo, Belgium created a program to autonomously measure the percentage of vegetation, water and clouds in photographs from Astro Pi Izzy.

Canarias 1 from IES El Calero, Spain built on previous data and successfully determined whether the ISS was eclipsed from on-board sensor data.

The Earth Watchers from S.T.E.M Robotics Academy, Greece used Astro Pi Izzy to compare the health of vegetation in Quebec, Canada and Guam.

Trentini DOP from CoderDojo Trento, Italy investigated the stability of the on-board conditions of the ISS and the whether or not they are effected by eclipsing.

Team Lampone from CoderDojo Trento, Italy accurately measured the speed of the ISS by analysing ground photographs taken by Astro Pi Izzy.

“So the day came when our data were sent from the ISS! It was unbelievable! Our experiment was actually run on ISS equipment and data were returned to us! How big was that? Eleven years old children from a small school somewhere in Greece cooperating with ESA to run an experiment on the ISS? If they achieved that, well, surely they can make many more dreams come true in their lives!” - Pi Stars, Greece

As an award for their excellent performance, each of these teams took part in a very special webinar with ESA astronaut Tim Peake on 22 June where they each had the opportunity to ask Tim a question and understand a little more about the life of an astronaut! 

The winner’s webinar concludes the 2017-2018 European Astro Pi Challenge and ESA congratulates once again allthe student teams that participated. Over 5000 students from all 24 ESA Member and Associate States took part in this year’s challenge, featuring both the simpler Mission Zero and the more advance Mission Space Lab, setting a new record for the Astro Pi Challenge.

“Overall, Mission Space Lab has been productive, learning how to code and having an experiment run on the ISS has been a great achievement. Through writing this programme the team has learned how to use parts of Python and solve difficult problems that do not have immediately recognisable solutions. The knowledge gained from taking part in Astro Pi will serve very well when it comes to solving other real world problems.” - JJB, The UK

ESA invites school teachers and students to stay tuned over the next weeks to hear about next year’s Astro Pi Challenge. 

Join the new edition of the Challenge and help ESA to break again the Astro Pi participation record!

“(…).Finally, thank you to everyone at the ESA who helped run this project. We enjoyed the experience and learned a lot (for example, did you know the Sense HAT points south in the Southern Hemisphere and north in the Northern Hemisphere? Cool.)” - The Broadviewnauts, Canada