Zero Robotics Middle School Summer Program 2020 and 2021

This year the Zero Robotics competition celebrated 10 years of operation on the SPHERES satellites.

The SPHERES satellites have been supporting a wide range of research on ISS since 2006 as one of the most utilized and popular experiments on station with over 500 hours of astronaut time to date.

Over this time technology has advanced and the SPHERES hardware is showing signs of wear so it is time for the SPHERES to be decommission and retired.

NASA has developed a new Free Flyer called Astrobee.

The Astrobee robots are cube shaped (1ft³), use electric fans as a propulsion system and cameras and sensors to navigate their surroundings.

The three Astrobees developed to date are named Honey, Queen and Bumble.

More information about Astrobee is available on the NASA site: https://www.nasa.gov/astrobee

Astrobee introductory video: Video Link

Two Astrobees were launched to ISS in April 2019.

Preliminary testing was initiated in June 2019.

Work has begun to transition the Zero Robotics competition to the Astrobee Free Flyers.

The Middle School Summer Program is currently planned to resume on Astrobee in the summer of 2021.

Please sign up here to be added the Zero Robotics mailing list for 2020/2021 Competition Updates: Link to Mailing List