Zero Robotics

Zero Robotics is the first robotics competition in space. Compete online for a slot in the championship round aboard the International Space Station!

"Zero Robotics" is a robotics programming tournament that opens the world-class research facilities on the International Space Station (ISS) to high-school students. Students will actually write programs at their High School that may control a satellite in space! The goal is to build critical engineering skills for students, such as problem solving, design thought process, operations training, and

team work. Ultimately we hope to inspire future scientists and engineers so that they will view working in space as "normal", and will grow up pushing the limits of engineering and space exploration. The participants compete to win a technically challenging game by programming their strategies into the SPHERES satellites. The programs are demonstrated first on the ground hardware and eventually in a final competition that runs the student software aboard the ISS. The game is motivated by a challenging problem of interest to DARPA, NASA and MIT. Teams compete by programming a SPHERES satellite to achieve the game objectives while competing or collaborating with other contestants. These satellites race against each other to win the game. The programs must be "autonomous" - that is, the students cannot control the satellites during the test itself. The tournament progresses in phases from 2D to 3D so that both 3DOF (on Earth) and 6DOF (on ISS) demonstrations are possible. The astronauts run the final robotics competition on the ISS, act as referees and interact with participating students via a live video broadcast in a large event at MIT, webcast live to all participants so that remote viewing is possible. Student teams can create, edit, save and simulate projects online. They may use a High Level Language (HLL) editor or a C editor to write code, simulate their program immediately and see the results in a flash animation. The HLL editor allows them to drag and drop blocks in the visual programming interface and create code diagrammatically – very useful for students with little or no prior programming experience. The simulation uses a high-fidelity 3D model of the SPHERES satellites. MIT provides the simulation and C programming interfaces via the Zero Robotics website, therefore no special software is required. The simulation also enables teams to compete against themselves, against pre-coded standard players and challenge other teams informally; students have ample opportunities to test different versions of their strategies before submitting their code for a formal competition. All submissions to challenge others and to the competition are via the website. Students also have access to online tutorials and an MIT technical support system.

04/13/2026

2026 Summer Registration Open

2026 Middle School Program Join us for live webinars to learn about SpySPHERES, the Zero Robotics platform, and how to prepare your team for the summer tournament. Open to all interested teachers and mentors.

10/30/2025

Registration Open for 2026 Zero Robotics - High School Tournament.
Zero Robotics invites students to program NASA’s Astrobee
Teams will develop autonomous code for resource-aware planning, precision navigation, and crew-aware tasking while coordinating with on-board astronauts.
The high school track emphasizes strategy, multi-objective optimization, and robust autonomy under uncertainty.

Registration is open now through November 21, 2025.
REGISTER YOUR TEAM: https://forms.gle/7SFyTHY4NWo8UjL26
INFORMATIONAL WEBINARS: October 30th & November 10th - pre registration required.

Danielle Wood Awarded 2025 Letten Prize – MIT Media Lab

07/24/2025

Congratulations Dr. Danielle!!!

Danielle Wood Awarded 2025 Letten Prize – MIT Media Lab Danielle Wood was awarded the prize for her work using space technology to create meaningful change for people on Earth.

07/24/2025

Join The Aerospace Corporation for our Virtual Career Day with Zero Robotics

Starting soon!
THURSDAY July 24
12:30 - 1:30 Eastern

ZR’s partner and sponsor, The Aerospace Corporation, will host a Virtual Career Day for ZR students, families and collaborators.
All are welcome

Meeting Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84005325709

04/07/2025

Write code to control NASA's Astrobee satellites aboard the International Space Station. Register today for the 2025 Zero Robotics Summer Program: https://forms.gle/Vf5tMeAsv4gLv6Ec9

04/02/2025

Registration is now open for the 2025 Zero Robotics Summer Program: https://forms.gle/Vf5tMeAsv4gLv6Ec9

Write code to control NASA's Astrobee satellites aboard the International Space Station.

12/17/2024

Zero Robotics invites High School Teams for 2025 Competition – MIT Media Lab Zero Robotics Invites Teams to Apply for the 2025 High School Coding Competition with the NASA Astrobee Robots on the International Space StationZero Robotics …

11/25/2024

Zero Robotics: 2025 High School Relaunch
This year is an invite-only tournament. Only 10 (min) to 15 (max) teams will invited to write code to control NASA's Astrobee satellites aboard the International Space Station. If you would like to be considered for the 2025 ZR Invitational, complete this form by December 10, 2024.

Zero Robotics: 2025 High School Relaunch MIT is relaunching the Zero Robotics High School Tournament! This is an invite-only tournament. Only 10 (min) to 15 (max) teams will invited to write code to control NASA's Astrobee satellites aboard the International Space Station this year. If you would like to be considered for the 2025 ZR Invita...

07/19/2024

It is a pleasure to lead 2 C0deEX Teams in this years Zero Robotics competition and bring them to MIT for the field day.

Photos from African Community Education (ACE)'s post

07/04/2024

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Location

Cambridge

Website

http://zerorobotics.mit.edu/

Address

Cambridge, MA
02139

Zero Robotics

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