Lesson 17 – Astro Pi : Mission Zero

Booting up the Raspberry Pi

  1. Let’s get started and boot up the Raspberry Pi.
  2. Grab a good quality USB cable and a USB power adaptor (2.5A).
  3. Plug one end of the USB cable into the plug and the other microUSB end into the Raspberry Pi.
  4. This should now power up the Raspberry Pi.
  5. Once the Raspberry Pi has booted up, please ensure that it is able to connect it to the network so that you can access it over VNC.
  6. If you are using a local monitor connected to the Raspberry Pi, you are all sorted.
  7. Else get connected to the Raspberry Pi using VNC.

Tutorial

  1. Our next tutorial is called, “Astro Pi : Mission Zero”.
  2. Brighten up the daily routine of the astronauts on the International Space Station by showing them a message and the ambient air temperature on board using the Astro Pi computer’s Sense HAT.
  3. You will use the online Sense HAT emulator to create your program, so no extra hardware is needed — everything is done in a web browser.
  4. You can also run this on a real Sense HAT board instead of using the online Sense HAT emulator.
  5. Your completed program will be run in space on the International Space Station (ISS)! You will also receive a special certificate showing where exactly the ISS was when your program ran!
  6. Click on the following link to access the tutorial – Astro Pi : Mission Zero
  7. Clicking on the each of the links above opens them up in a new window

Pre-requisites

  1. This development track is based on the Raspberry Pi 3  and the Raspberry Pi SenseHAT add on board.
  2. If you haven’t purchased the Raspberry Pi 3  yet please head over to OzToyLib and purchase one now.
  3. You will need access to both the Raspberry Pi 3 including the Raspberry Pi SenseHAT add on board to be able to work on these tutorials.
  4. Depending on where you live you might also be able to pick up the Raspberry Pi 3 and the Raspberry Pi SenseHAT add on board at your local electronics hobby store.
  5.  You can read more about the Raspberry Pi here – RaspberryPi.org.

Questions