Issue #78 — Astro

Hi everyone

This week the Foundation announced a new project and competition in partnership with the European Space Agency to deploy two Raspberry Pis to the International Space Station as part of British astronaut Tim Peake’s Principia mission.

The competition will allow school students to enter ideas and code for experiments to run on the Raspberry Pi in space. The Pis will have cameras attached as well as a new HAT with various sensors for such experimentation.

Also the Pi Towers Christmas Competition is now open – the chance for under-18s to design leaflets, banners, posters and more for maker faire stands and other demonstrations – to win one of 250 Raspberry Pi B+ starter kits and more.

This week the Christmas Lectures are taking place at the Royal Institution in London – which are sponsored by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The lectures will be televised on BBC Four on 29th, 30th and 31st December

Last weekend we saw CamJam transform the Institute of Astronomy in to a robotics arena for Pi Wars.

Ben

Picture of the week

The new Astro Pi HAT – the add-on board that will go in to space. Available to the general public early 2015.

News

• Astro Pi (raspberrypi.org)
  New project to send Pis to the ISS for school science experiments
• MagPi Issue 29 (raspberrypi.org)
  Building a high altitude capsule, Model A+ comparison, robots and more
• Christmas Competition (raspberrypi.org)
  Your chance to win a B+ starter kit (if you're under 18) - open worldwide
• Compute Module Symposium (raspberrypi.org)
  Gordon looking to see who's interested in a compute module developers conference

Projects

• Hackable Roomba (linuxgizmos.com)
  iRobot’s hackable $200 Roomba robot for STEM education
• Top 15 Raspberry Pi projects to try over Christmas (itpro.co.uk)
  Whatsapp, Multi-room music player, customised picture frame, treasure box and more
• Create a Digital Compass (ozzmaker.com)
  Create a Digital Compass with the Raspberry Pi

Articles & more

• Astronaut Tim Peake invites Raspberry Pi challenge (bbc.co.uk)
  Tim Peake spoke to Rory Cellan-Jones about the challenge
• Send your computer code into space (gov.uk)
  UK space organisations team up with Raspberry Pi to launch competition
• Tim Peake to take kids' Raspberry Pi code to space (wired.co.uk)
  Raspberry Pi continuing to blaze its trail of innovation by heading up to space
• Pi Wars (raspberrypi.org)
  The Cambridge Raspberry Jam with robots - in pictures and video
• Wheels and a Sandwich (raspberrypi.org)
  Gert's mini A+ robot with a compute module trailer (for a Jam sandwich)
• Tinkering, tailoring with a Raspberry Pi (bigl.es)
  Les Pounder's round-up of training treachers, making projects and winning an award
• Tinkering with the Raspberry Pi A+ (opensource.com)
  A review of the new Model A+ with specs, comparisons and a nice round-up

Upcoming Events

• Barnstaple Raspberry Jam (UK) (13 December)
• Huddersfield Raspberry Jam (UK) (13 December)
• Northern Ireland Raspberry Jam (UK) (13 December)
• Manchester Girl Geek Tea Party: Mince Pi (UK) (14 December)
• Malinowy dżemik #6 (PL) (18 December)
• Raspberry Pi Book Club #04 (TW) (22 December)
• Preston Raspberry Jam (UK) (5 January)
• Darlington Raspberry Jam (UK) (10 January)
• Glasgow Raspberry Pi Day (UK) (17 January)
• Malvern Raspberry Jam (UK) (17 December)
• Pi and More 6 (DE) (24 January)
• Egham Raspberry Jam (UK) (25 January)
• Stourbridge Raspberry Jam (UK) (31 January)

Thanks to our sponsor

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Contact & Submissions

This newsletter is curated by @ben_nuttall. Tweet links to @rpf_weekly or email weekly [at] raspberrypi.org