SANDPOINT — It is even better than attending U.S. Space Camp because this summertime program gives students the chance to solve weighty — well, actually, weightless — problems. Zero Robotics, a five-week summer program coordinated by East Bonner County Library District and Lake Pend Oreille public schools, puts participants at the virtual helm of a satellite data recovery effort based on the International Space Station.

Morgan Gariepy, young adult services librarian for the Sandpoint branch of EBCLD, and Dinah Gaddie, Sandpoint Middle School STEM electives teacher, are leading the local team. With the sponsorship of the Idaho Afterschool Network, Sandpoint landed the only such program in North Idaho. They and their 11 students are teaming up with other students nationwide, NASA, and MIT Space Systems Lab to problem-solve satellite data recovery from units that are no longer operational, said Gaddie. 

"Zero Robotics is a robotics programming competition where the robots are SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellites) inside the International Space Station. The competition starts online ... where teams program the SPHERES to solve an annual challenge. After several phases of virtual competition in a simulation environment that mimics the real SPHERES, finalists are selected to compete in a live championship aboard the ISS. An astronaut will conduct the championship competition in microgravity with a live broadcast!" according to information from MIT.

“It's always amazing — you can put something in front of them and they’re not bound by adult inhibitions," said Gaddie. "At some level, I think NASA and MIT understand that. That's why they created this program."

Her students learn to write computer code via a graphic interface keyed to their grade level. The code will direct the movement of a SPHERE, which is approximately the size of a bowling ball. The code must control the SPHERES' speed, direction and rotation. It also has to direct the SPHERES to bypass obstacles and conserve resources such as solar energy. The completed program must operate autonomously because the students will only be watching — not controlling — the final test run at ISS, Gaddie said.

“I teach computer coding for 3-D modeling," she said. "Maybe half these kids have had that class from me. The others pick it up fast.”

"You have to use a lot of logic and if-then statements. If something is greater than something else. Thinking out ahead of the information that is there. There’s a lot of games that you have to think of what it's going to look like when it's finished," said Sam Owens, a student from Canfield Middle School in Coeur d'Alene.

“We’ve been messing around with the code, making different strategies and plans. In the end, they actually use our code at ISS,” said J.P. Bond, a student at SMS.

Students have plenty of opportunities to test and modify their code in class. One activity pitted teams against one another to see which code allowed competing spheres to take the most pictures of the other while gaining points and conserving energy.

After each salvo, Gaddie asked her students to think about which strategies worked and what problems needed to be addressed.

"Let's wrap our minds around what is different, she said after one team culled far more points than the other. "Why do you suppose the points were so much higher this time?"

"They (the SPHERES game pieces) were kind of like samurais," said Bond. "They just kind of got in there like ‘boom!’” 

Another team discovered a code error that prevented its program from loading and fixed the problem.

"We were supposed to go into the dark, but I think I put something in wrong,” said Owens.

"It's all about collaboration — the top code is shared with everyone in the nation,” said Gaddie.

Zero Robotics teams from participating schools will turn in their completed sequences the first week of August, and the final will take place Aug. 12.