Students take control of satellites on the International Space Station
What’s it like to operate satellites 260 miles above the Earth’s surface? Now more than 200 high-school students can tell you from experience — and add the engineering feat to their college applications. Last week, MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) hosted its annual Zero Robotics tournament, in which high-school students from the United States and Europe developed computer codes to direct small basketball-sized satellites aboard the International Space Station (ISS). This year, more than 1,700 students from around the world joined the challenge, with some programming for the very first time. Over the course of three months, teams of students worked out computer codes to steer the satellites through a series of maneuvers, completing a virtual “mission” — clearing lower Earth’s orbit of accumulating space junk. Students put their codes to the test in online simulations, gaining points over opponents by completing certain maneuvers. After a series of...