Jan 18, 2012

Ann Marie Trotta Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1601 ann marie trotta@nasa gov

Caroline McCall MIT, Cambridge, Mass 617-253-1682 cmccall5@mit edu

MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-010

NASA JOINS MIT AND DARPA FOR OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD STUDENT ROBOTIC CHALLENGE

WASHINGTON -- NASA will join the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and high school student teams from the U S and abroad for the third annual Zero Robotics SPHERES Challenge on Monday, Jan 23 The event will take place on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Mass , and be broadcast live on NASA Television from 8 a m to 12:30 p m EST

For the competition, NASA will upload software developed by high school students onto Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES), which are bowling ball-sized spherical satellites aboard the International Space Station The top 27 teams from previous competitions will have their code sent Monday to the space station, where an astronaut will command the satellites to execute the teams' flight program During a simulated mission, the teams will complete a special challenge inspired by future satellite technologies, such as formation flight and close proximity operations

Student finalists will be able to see their flight program live in the televised finals The team with the highest software performance over several rounds of the competition will win the challenge The winning team will be awarded certificates and a SPHERES flight patch that was flown to the space station

News media wishing to cover this event must contact Caroline McCall at MIT (cmccall5@mit edu or 617-253-1682) by 2 p m EST on Friday, Jan 20 NASA officials and members of the astronaut corps will be available to speak with news media after the competition

In addition to their use in this competition, the satellites are used inside the space station to conduct formation flight maneuvers for spacecraft guidance navigation, control and docking The three separate satellites that make up SPHERES fly in formation inside the space station's cabin The satellites provide opportunities to test a wide range of hardware and software at an affordable cost

The SPHERES National Laboratory Facility on the station is operated and maintained by NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif

For more about the Zero Robotics program, visit:

http://go nasa gov/zero-robotics

For more information about SPHERES, visit:

http://www nasa gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/SPHERES html

For NASA TV schedule and video streaming information, visit:

http://www nasa gov/nasatv

For more information about the space station, visit:

http://www nasa gov/station

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