Watch Part 4 of the Story of Astro Pi!

Ed and Izzy will remain on the International Space Station until 2022, and they have exciting work ahead of them. Keep an eye on this blog and on our official magazine, The MagPi, for news!

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We announced the winners in early April. Since then, we’ve been checking your code on flight-equivalent Astro Pi units and going through the official software delivery and deployment process with the European Space Agency (ESA).

Crew time is heavily regulated on the ISS. However, because no science or experimentation output is required for this, they allowed us to upload it as a crew care package for Tim! We’re very grateful to the UK Space Agency and ESA for letting us extend the Astro Pi project in this way to engage more kids.

The code was uploaded and Tim deployed it onto Ed on May 15. He then recorded this and sent it to us:

https://vimeo.com/167392781

In total, there were four winning MP3 players and four winning Sonic Pi tunes; the audio from the Sonic Pi entries was converted into MP3 format, so that it could be played by the MP3 players. The music heard is called Run to the Stars, composed with Sonic Pi by Iris and Joseph Mitchell, who won the 11 years and under age group.

Tim tested all four MP3 players, listened to all four Sonic Pi tunes, and then went on to load more tunes from his own Spacerocks collection onto the Astro Pi!

Tim said in an email:

As a side note, I’ve also loaded it with some of my Spacerocks music – it works just great. I was dubious about the tilt mechanism working well in microgravity, using the accelerometers to change tracks, but it works brilliantly. I tried inputting motion in other axes to test the stability and it was rock solid – it only worked with the correct motion. Well done to that group!!

“That group” was Lowena Hull from Portsmouth High School, whose MP3 player could change tracks by quickly twisting the Astro Pi to the left or right. Good coding, Lowena!

Thanks again to everyone who took part, to our special judges OMD and Ilan Eshkeri, and especially to Tim Peake, who did this during his time off on a Sunday afternoon last weekend.

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In November this year the UK Space Agency is holding two special conferences to celebrate the educational work linked to Tim Peake’s Principia mission. These events will be an opportunity for kids of all ages to show their projects to a panel of leading space experts – hopefully including Tim himself!

Tim’s schedule after he returns to Earth is hectically busy, but he’s very keen to be at the events and meet children, and everyone involved is working hard towards this goal. The conferences will be held at:

• University of Portsmouth on Wednesday 2 November 2016
• University of York on Saturday 5 November 2016

Attendance is free, and the UK Space Agency is offering travel bursaries to help with the cost of getting there. However, if you want to go, you’ll need to apply for one of the available places.

The Principia mission has a huge range of linked educational activities, one of which is our own Astro Pi, and the conferences will be attended by students selected from across them all. There are about 500 student places available for each event; the individuals and teams who submit the strongest applications presenting their projects will be invited to take part.

Astro Pi is one of many Principia activities

You certainly don’t need to have won one of the Principia competitions to be invited to participate: the organisers want to see all kinds of work linked with Tim’s mission. They want your application to tell the story behind what you did, describe what you’ve learned by carrying out the project, and explain what long-term effects the work has had on your school. We expect the conferences will include students presenting a huge variety of work, from activities linked to official competitions to creative ideas that students and teachers have generated themselves.

To illustrate the kind of applications we’re hoping to see, it’s worth mentioning the testimonial about Astro Pi that maths teacher Gillian Greig, from The Priory School in Hitchin, wrote last year. We think it’s a great example of the kind of story the organisers will enjoy seeing. Gillian, we hope you and your students will apply!

Of course, we’d love to see a strong Astro Pi contingent at both conferences, so we strongly encourage anyone who engaged with Astro Pi to apply. You can apply as an individual, a group, a class, or even an entire school. The applications will be judged by a panel who will select projects that show dedication and thoughtfulness.

Flight equivalent Astro Pi units will be available at the conferences

Dave Honess, who manages Astro Pi, will be at both conferences with a number of flight equivalent Astro Pi units that can be used by attendees for their presentations.

The deadline for applications is Thursday 15 September 2016 at 12 noon.

Apply here!

You can find more details about the application process, the conference venues, and arrangements for travel and accommodation on the Principia website. And if you have any questions, feel free to post them below – we’ll do our best to answer them.

Good luck!

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Our intrepid Astro Pi units Izzy and Ed launched in December and were deployed by British ESA astronaut Tim Peake in February. We’ve seen the first part of their animated adventures; now we bring you the second part of their story, featuring some very special guests.

https://vimeo.com/158627990

We’re especially excited that our Astro Pis have met Robonaut, NASA’s humanoid robot, as well as human crew members from ESA, NASA and Roscosmos.

After Ed and Izzy finished running apps and experiments coded by UK school students, they entered a flight recorder mode where they saved sensor readings to a database every ten seconds. They each recorded their orientation and acceleration, as well as temperature, humidity and pressure, over a period of about two weeks. We’ve now made the data they recorded on the ISS available for everyone to download, so you can analyse it any way you like, and we’ve also prepared a Flight Data Analysis resource to help you interpret and handle the data. We’re really looking forward to seeing how you use these data to analyse and interpret the movement of the space station and the environment on board.

Both Astro Pi units have been tweeting about some of their activities, including some great Earth observation images from Izzy, and they’re also talking about opportunities to get involved with their mission. Follow Ed and Izzy on Twitter to see what they’re up to!

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