By Prince William County, Va. — Team SuperNOVA, a robotics team from Osbourn Park, Gar-Field, and Freedom high schools in Prince William County, headed by teacher James Gillespie, was recently able to see their work inside the International Space Station.
In a unique competition run by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, secondary school students are able to access the space station using SPHERES satellites in a game which mimics mining operations on near-eath asteroids, according to a Prince William County Public Schools press release. The game is played online in the first few rounds, but having completed several rounds of competitions, the SuperNOVA team will now travel to MIT to watch a live broadcast on January 23 from the International Space Station. An astronaut will conduct the ZERO Robotics championship in microgravity.
“Getting to see their work inside the International Space Station is unlike any experience these students could have imagined, even if it is via satellite communications,” said Gillespie, via press release.
The nine members of team SuperNOVA are Michael Chang, Roxanne Jassawalla, James Jung, Benny Peake, Piper Sigrest, and Victoria Vanderbach from Osbourn Park High School; Wei Low and Oscar McCullough from Gar-Field High School; Joe Mehr from Freedom High School; and Osbourn Park Coach James Gillespie.
