Zero Robotics

Program

Zero Robotics is an inspiring program for middle school students that is truly out of this world! The five-week STEM curriculum introduces students to computer programming, robotics, and space engineering, and provides hands-on experience programming Astrobee Satellites. Zero Robotics is provided through a partnership between the MIT Space Enabled Research Group, the Innovation Learning Center, the Aerospace Corporation, the ISS National Laboratory, the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, (NASA), National Science Foundation and Aurora Flight Science: a Boeing Company. Zero Robotics seeks to inspire our next generation of great minds by allowing them unprecedented access to space at the middle school level. By making the benefits and resources of the International Space Station tangible to students, Zero Robotics hopes to cultivate an appreciation of science, technology, engineering and math through healthy, immersive, collaborative competition. 

The Zero Robotics program is a 5-week coding program in which middle school students (rising 5th graders through rising 9th graders) learn to program robotic satellites aboard the International Space Station (ISS). This program is FREE of charge for all students.The competition starts online, where teams program the Astrobee Satellites to solve an annual challenge.  After several phases of virtual competition in a simulation environment that mimics the real Astrobee, finalists are selected to compete in a live championship aboard the ISS. An astronaut conducts the championship competition in microgravity with a live broadcast to your school or community based organization.

Game

Student participants compete to win a technically challenging game by programming their strategies into an Astrobee Satellite. Students’ programs control the satellites' speed, rotation, and direction of travel. The students program their satellites to complete competition objectives like navigating obstacles, while conserving resources such as fuel. The programs are autonomous - that is, the students are not able to directly control the satellites while they are running.  Each year’s game is motivated by a problem of interest to NASA and MIT. 

The 2022 Zero Robotics Summer Program was the first "class" of Zero Robotics students chosen to write code for NASA's Astrobee satellite aboard the International Space Station.  NASA’s next-generation free-flyer, Astrobee, replaces the previously used hardware used for Zero Robotics, the SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hole Engage Reorient Experimental Satellites).  Find out more about the Astrobee on the Nasa webpage.

Zero Robotics is an invite only competition as with extremely limited space available.   Students will create, edit, save, and simulate projects online. They will use a graphical editor to write code, then simulate their programs immediately and see the results using a simulation. The programming interface and simulation are entirely web-based, so ZR does not require any software downloads or computer configuration.

Summer 2023 Schedule

The ZR program will run from June 26 – August 4, 2022. This competition will be in-person at Creekside Middle School in Castro Valley.  

Weekly Schedule

Week 1.    June 26 - June 30, 2023

Week 2.    July 3 - July 7, 2023

Week 3. July 10 - July 14, 2023

Week 4. July 17 - July 21, 2023

Week 5. July 24 - July 28, 2023

Finals        Week of August 1st - 4th - LIVE International Space Station Finals ( Subject to change by NASA)

Robin McCoy  

email:  rmccoy@cv.k12.ca.us