Written by Amy and Leo, Year 10
Last week, we (Team OHSpace) received news that our code was going to be run on the International Space Station (ISS), as part of the competition ‘Astro Pi: Mission Space Lab’. We are one of only 34 teams from the UK to get through to this stage, and one of 294 out of 771 teams across Europe to get this far.
We entered Phase 1 back in October 2023. We had to design a research project using a Raspberry Pi on the ISS to collect data. We had a choice between two categories: Life in Space or Life on Earth. We chose Life in Space and started planning our project looking at what crops could be grown on the ISS. We had to come up with a mini-thesis explaining how we would use the Astro Pi and what testing we would do on Earth.
In early December, we were told we had progressed to Phase 2 and were sent our very own Astro Pi. We wrote a programme measuring the temperature, humidity, pressure and light intensity on the ISS. We then also had to make sure something was displayed on the screen in order for astronauts to know the code is running.
And, as it was going to be run in space we thought “Go Beyond!” and an OHS sunflower seemed very suitable. We also added time and location data into our programme so we knew when and where it would run. After many lunchtime sessions and some rigorous testing, it was time to submit. We then had to wait… again.
Now that our code is going to be run, we are going to pick-up where we left off researching different crops and their optimum growing conditions. When we get our data back we will need to analyse it and write a short report to be submitted for Phase 4.
You can read more about the competition here.
Code ready for submission to @Astro_Pi – this will be the furthest the @OxfordHighSch #GoBeyond message has reached if it gets to the ISS @Space_Station! pic.twitter.com/f5vvyb2crx
— OHS Computer Science (@OHS_CS) February 20, 2023