The names for the new Astro Pi computers can now be revealed!
In brief
ESA Education, in collaboration with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, is excited to announce the successful deployment of 17,168 young people’s programs aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for the European Astro Pi Challenge 2021/22! We can now reveal the names of the two new and upgraded Astro Pi computers, chosen by Astro Pi Mission Zero participants.
In-depth
Astro Pi — more popular than ever with young people
In addition to the 299 Mission Space Lab teams who achieved flight status this year, 16,869 Mission Zero programs were deployed, by young people from 26 countries. This is an amazing 84% increase compared to Mission Zero last year!
Mission Zero is perfect for coding beginners: participants follow step-by-step instructions to create a simple program that takes a humidity reading on board the ISS and displays it for the astronauts - together with participants’ own unique message. Teams were very creative, making great use of the Astro Pi’s LED matrix this year.
Every Mission Zero participant has been sent a unique certificate showing where in its orbital path the ISS was when their program was run.
The upgraded Astro Pi units — and their new names
This year’s European Astro Pi Challenge is the first to use two brand new Astro Pi computers that arrived on the ISS in December 2021. They are packed with new features, widening the opportunities for new experiments. ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer oversaw the deployment of both the Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab programs, but first he had a very special task - unpacking and assembling the Astro Pis in microgravity.
In total, 28,126 young people took part across both Astro Pi 2021/22 challenges but our new Astro Pi computers were more than up to the challenge! The first two Astro Pis, Ed and Izzy, were originally launched in 2015 with Tim Peake’s Principia Mission and have been used to run programs from more than 54,000 young people. They have done an amazing job and will return to Earth later this year.
Mission Zero 2021/22 participants had the opportunity to suggest the names of the two new Astro Pi computers, honouring inspirational European scientists. There were nearly 7,000 suggestions! ESA Astronaut Matthias Maurer has recorded a special message for us revealing that the two new Astro Pi computers will be named after (drum roll)... Nikola Tesla and Marie Curie.
Nikola Tesla was born in Croatia in 1856 and his innovations in electrical engineering included alternating current, vital for transmitting electricity over long distances, and the induction motor. Marie Curie was born in Poland in 1867 and was the first person ever to win two Nobel Prizes, in Physics and Chemistry, for her contribution to pioneering work on radioactivity and the treatment of cancer. Marie Curie and Nikola Tesla’s work continues to impact all of our lives today and we are delighted that their names have been chosen for the new Astro Pi computers.
The Astro Pi equipped with a Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera (HQC) that is sensitive to Near Infrared light will be named Nikola Tesla, and the Astro Pi with the visible light HQC will be Marie Curie.
Sign up for news about the next Astro Pi Challenge
Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab will be back again in September 2022. Subscribe to the Astro Pi Newsletter on the Astro Pi Website to get details when the 2022/23 challenges have lift off!