Mission Zero is a challenge for beginners in computer coding and/or students up to age 19. Mentored by French astronaut Sophie Adenot, this challenge involves coding a simple computer program that reads a measurement from an Astro Pi sensor on board the International Space Station and displays a personalized image that astronauts can see as they go about their daily tasks. All participants who follow the challenge rules are guaranteed that their program will be sent to the ISS!
ProjetMission Zero
Targetup to 19 years old
PeriodSeptember 14, 2026 to March 22, 2027
Discover the world of programming by creating your own image that will be sent to the International Space Station!
To participate, register on the challenge website and receive your personal class code.
Students then write their program to display an image on a theme of their choice.
Then submit your work to the ESA website before March 22, 2027, using your class code.
To help you, you can try out the Spaceblock tool: Astro Pi coding emulator that automatically transcribes code into Python.
If they comply with the rules, the programs are then sent to and executed on the ISS (Mission Zero guideline)!
Each student will receive a certificate from ESA with the date and location of the program’s execution aboard the ISS.
Déroulé du projet
Launch of the Mission Zero project
Register on the European Space Agency website to receive your class code.
Launch webinar
CNES, through its ESERO France office, is organising a webinar for teachers to present details of the Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab challenges, as well as the new Astro Pi resources.
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Online conference on rover programming
In December 2026, CNES will be organising a webinar to explain how CNES experts program Martian rovers. The webinar will be presented by a CNES engineer and will be open to students in cycles 3 and 4 and at high school level.
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Online challenge: ‘Pixel art in 60 minutes’
The ‘Pixel Art in 60 Minutes’ challenge invites students in Cycle 3 and above to discover the world of programming through the new Astro Pi activity sheet. Suitable for students from CM1 onwards, this activity enables them to create a pixelated drawing using computer code in under 60 minutes. During this challenge, participating classes will have one week to complete the activity and submit their code to CNES and via ESA’s Mission Zero website. A CNES judging panel will select five ‘favourite’ drawings, which will receive some surprises from CNES and ESA.
Submission deadline
To confirm your participation in the project and see your images aboard the ISS, please ensure that you have submitted your programs before this date.
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Submissions are uploaded and executed in the ISS
If the submission follows the official guidelines and is made by an eligible team, the program will be executed in space.
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National closing event
CNES will host a closing event in Toulouse in May. Classes that have submitted their code as part of the Astro Pi project will be able to attend a lecture given by a CNES specialist and take part in an activity related to astronaut training. If you would like to participate, please fill out this form!
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Live with an astronaut
At the end of the season, ESA organizes an online event for all project participants. This is your chance to ask questions to one of ESA’s astronauts.
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Certificates are sent to participants
Teams will receive a certificate that shows the location of the ISS when their program was run!
Educational resources
Numerous resources are available on the ESERO France website to provide you with the best possible support for your project.
- Download the resources and activities dedicated to the Astro Pi challenge.
- Review the training offered in French by ESERO France on December 13, 2023 here.
- Test Spaceblock tool: Astro Pi block coding emulator automatically transcribed into Python.
The ESERO France team is available to support you throughout this project. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at esero.france@cnes.fr.
We hope to see many of you again for this new season!
