Work of Clonakilty coders to be tested in space

A team of young coders in West Cork have developed a computer programme which is set to be tested on the International Space Station in the coming weeks.

The six children, all members of the Clonakilty CoderDojo Astro Pi team, have created sophisticated software to monitor the real-life living conditions of astronauts on the space station in terms of temperature, humidity, air pressure, and light.

Eleven-year-olds Adriana Cullinane, John Deegan, Daragh Walsh and Tom O’Donovan along with James Robey, 13, and Greg Robey, 16, worked on the project for months with the support of mentors Kate O’Donovan and John Cocula.

“The project will analyse data to determine whether the workspace in space is comfortable for humans,” said Margaret Deegan, co-ordinator of Clonakilty CoderDojo. “We will answer questions such as: is there enough air pressure to breathe comfortably? Is the temperature too hot or cold? Is the air too dry or wet? Is there enough light to read the instruments and work?”

Ms Deegan said the Teolaí project — for which the youngsters had to carry out research into life in space, and use the Raspberry Pi computer as well as learn a new computer language —had been submitted to the European Space Agency as part of its Astro-Pi competition (astro-pi.org/about).

“This was a very challenging project which the group has been working on since last October and our project was accepted over many other projects for all around Europe. Basically, our code will now be judged by a panel of software industry experts and aerospace professionals from various nations,” said Ms Deegan.

When uploaded to the International Space Station, the code would run for two orbits. “The code was created using the Astro Pi kit which we received from the ESA, this is essentially a Raspberry Pi computer and a SenseHat (which has an LED display) and we created various icons to display the levels of comfort, coded in Python.

“It has now gone forward and will be competing against many other tech projects.This is a hugely prestigious competition, and from a CoderDojo perspective, having our project accepted by such an international panel is hugely prestigious and a great honour.”

The project will be run on the International Space Station between now and the beginning of May. The group will then receive data which the young members must analyse, with the final results of their efforts known by early summer.