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Roboticist’s Apprentice: Simulating Microsatellites

Sunday, June 1, 2014
3:15 pm - 4:30 pm

If you’ve always dreamed of working with a team of robots to control a satellite in space—and who hasn’t?—now’s your chance. Right now, robots called SPHERES inside the orbiting International Space Station are taking web-browser commands from Earthlings below, testing how things navigate in microgravity. MIT’s Zero Robotics cofounder Alvar Saenz-Otero will teach you how to write code to order the SPHERES around, and let you run simulations to see how well your code would work. You can immediately put your newfound knowledge to work solving challenges and competing in tournaments to program the robots; finalists get to control the real SPHERES on the ISS.

This is a drop-off workshop where young scientists learn directly from leading scientists, technologists, and innovators. Ages: 5th grade and above.

This program is supported by the Bezos Family Foundation.

Participants

Alvar Saenz-OteroAerospace Engineer

Alvar Saenz-Otero is the director of the MIT Space Systems Laboratory at the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. His primary role is as lead scientist of the SPHERES program, where he develops research activities for tests aboard the International Space Station and in ground facilities.

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