The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Raspberry Pi Foundation have announced the start of Astro Pi 2020-21. It gives young people the chance to write code to run on two Raspberry Pi computers living on board the International Space Station (ISS).

The Astro Pi Raspberry Pi in space competition kicks off

The ESA promises a new, improved challenge this year.

“The European Astro Pi Challenge is back and better than ever, with a brand-new website, cool new key visuals, and more inclusive entry criteria!”

There are two complexity levels making up the European Astro Pi Challenge 2020-21. These are: Astro Pi Mission Zero and Astro Pi Mission Space Lab.

Astro Pi Mission Zero

Mission Zero is designed for beginners/younger participants up to 14 years old. Consisting of writing a simple program to take a humidity reading on board the ISS and communicate it to the astronauts with a personalised message, Mission Zero can be completed in a single session of around an hour and doesn’t require any previous coding experience or special hardware. It’s a perfect activity for coding clubs or groups of students who are beginners to programming and digital making, and all participants who follow the challenge rules are guaranteed to have their programs run in 2021.

Astro Pi Mission Space Lab key

Mission Space Lab is aimed at more experienced/older participants up to 19 years old, and it takes place in 4 phases over the course of 8 months. The challenge is to design and write a program for a scientific experiment that enhances our understanding of either Life on Earth or Life in Space. The best experiments will be deployed to the ISS, and teams will have the opportunity to analyse and report on their results.

In terms of timelines and deadlines, registrations for the compo have just opened, the deadline for Mission Space Lab entry submissions is 23 October 2020 and the deadline for Mission Zero entry submissions is 19 March 2021.