g out how would you control a rover from orbit. 'cause there are certain delays associated with the communication, and it's so far away that you have seconds, maybe even minutes of delay, right? how do you control a robot on a far-off world like mars? so this rover-scape was built to test out... advik: everybody's saying, "oh, we need to move to mars. the earth is gonna blow up," and stuff like that. um, soon, but not yet. well, like, it's gonna get overheated, and everybody's saying it's gonna flood, 'cause, like, the-- all the global warming is melting the glaciers. if it does melt everything, then the whole earth will be flooded. i really want to try and stop global warming. i think it comes from wanting to help the environment.

wanting to help the ocean, because there's so many animals that are going extinct, and i just think that if i can help them, it would be the most amazing thing in the world to me. tanner: i think there's that aspect of it, of like, pushing mankind forward. like, the opportunity for the kids to be going to mars in 20 years is very-- is very realistic. one of them will probably be up there. -yeah. yeah. so... -that's what i want to see. wow. -come on, in, guys. -sorry, guys. (laughs) that's all right. my name is jasmine leyva. i am a reporter for the silicon valley community newspapers. there is a lot of stem within the silicon valley, but the difference here is that this is something big happening somewhere so local, and people might not even know it's in their backyard.

tanner: conditional. if you-- if-- wait, no. wait, no. if you get number of sps held and it equals zero, sub position target to that. jasmine: what interested me is that these kids are trying to solve real-world problems. even one of the kids said, "earth is failing." it's, like, "okay, well, how do you solve that?" and these kids probably, in the future, if not now, have that answer. tanner: is this correct? yeah. pile. compile. that way you can make sure. this loop, so far, drops our sps. we've got points for our triangle. now, which piece do we want to go for first? -large, yeah. -the large satellite piece. carol: it's go big or go home. tanner: it really reminds me of, like, for me to learn another language. it's going to be hard for me. if i was a kid, this, for them, is computer language, coding language. they just run with it, and they're able to make it fun. we got this. we got this. we got this. what? so, ladies and gentlemen, we docked a large item. we got a penalty going on the way over here. how can we fix that?

so basically, we're competing with ourselves right now. and then we submit a code, our best code that we have come up with, to our region competition. now, if we have the best code out of that group, our code will be uploaded to the space station, and we'll get to see the spheres actually play out the game in zero gravity that they've been coding this entire time. jack fischer: if we're ever going to break the bonds of gravity and become an interplanetary species, we need to work together, and we can't build a team if we don't respect and understand each other. if fyodor and i are the two very lucky people that get to sit upon a monument to international cooperation and then go to an even bigger one... every day, you're reminded of how many people make this happe.

male announcer: jack fischer, fyodor yurchikhin on their way to the international space station. female recorded voice: winchester. do not cross the tracks when the lights are flashing. tanner: my love for space and science came from my grandfather. -(speaks spanish) -hello there. -how you doing? -how are you, amigo? good to see you. tanner: he worked for pg&e, and he always had nasa stuff around. and so to play a part in his legacy and where we're going in the future, um, it's a pretty big deal for me. so, we've got some pictures with history here. my dad was? a helicopter gunner. vietnam. wow. he was lucky he came back alive. yeah, i'm lucky he came back alive. oh, he had to. yeah. then i wouldn't be here. oh no. (laughs) so, that was what it's all about. is that a piece of the space station? yeah.

were they are surprised to have a... hardworking latino that knew what he was doing or what? yeah. i worked for nasa and most of the work that i did was parts for the space station. the stuff that connects with engineering and space, that's what i've got from you. like, i always knew, pop-- i always knew from when i was too old to be in camp that i wanted to be a teacher, i wanted to be a leader. i wanted to be, you know, a coach. i always knew that, but i didn't know that i was going to be using coding to do it. grandfather: what you're doing with the kids... to open their eyes. so this one is the us lab... to see what's around them, to beneift your life, the benefit is there. and the opportunity. carol: ...target to, um, item zero docking location. there you go. like, how do we accomplish this thing? that gives you the encouragement to keep going, you know?

yeah. just keep it up. that's what i'm going to do. that's what i'm going to do. i see my-- my aunts and my dad, and they're all, you know, six, seven, nine. right after this, they come to our middle school program, and i got a chance to bring all this identification with the latinos because of what my grandfather and my grandmother made for my family. it's been important. oh, so many years ago. i'm 92 years old, you know, what happened to the years? they disappear. yeah.

my grandpa passed away, and... i wish, my baby sister... that she would have met him somehow. (cries)

man: we are still deeply impacted by their loss, although this year marks 53 years since apollo 1. 34 years since the space shuttle challenger, and 17 years since the space shuttle columbia tragedies, their crews are remembered forever. tanner: not only is it really sad for the people and the families, but our entire country. it's very scary stuff, because we've had failures before. so if something is going wrong two minutes in, are we going to have a chance to change it? we need a plan every little piece of that code, because a small miscalculation... advik: i think i'm already inspired by tanner and his grandpa. his grandfather was born in mexico, and he came up here to have better education. and soon nasa wanted him to work on the hubble telescope.

announcer: our window on the universe. advik: and it's still mapping to this day. announcer: ...the breadth of the scientific discoveries it's been able to make. advik: i found that fascinating. announcer: the age of the universe, proving the existence of black holes... man: the heavens just... woman: you know, i think the end of the story is... man: ...human beings on this earth ever imagined that they would be able to see? tanner: and because human life is very precious, we had seven astronauts on the space shuttle. male reporter: everything looking good on board columbia. you see our whole planet go by, and it just left me thinking that, "wow, just 90 minutes and this whole planet has gone by... this one magnificent planet, which is the only place that supports

life that we know of..." so i really want to get that feeling again. so that's what i'm looking forward to. (indistinct transmission) female reporter: it's been ten years since the space shuttle disaster. after a 16-day mission... the first woman born in india to travel to space spent a total... female reporter: 15 years after her death... (speaking foreign language) the hindu religion, it's in every part of my life. this throne, it's from my great grandmother and has been in our family for generations. the reason why my mother's picture is with the cards is we believe that when humans passes away,

their soul becomes one with a god, and we pray to them. (speaks foreign language) we have a ritual where we invite the soul back into our house on the day that she passed away. and she blesses all of us. and then they go back happily for one more year... to the gods. makayla: i wish for people to be equal and... like, have their own dreams, believe what they want... and i-- i just wish i can be part of that, part of that process. like, advik's from india, and carol's from-- her family is from mexico.

i like how we work together. and it makes me think you can believe whatever you want. you can dream whatever you want, and that if you can work together very well, you'll fly straight to the moon. advik: i think the greatest thing about space is memories of watching people who've gone to the moon. it's just, like, cool thinking about that. man: the eagle has landed. advik: because that's really hard to achieve. neil: as a symbol to mankind that we can live... in peace and harmony in the future. advik: you can be cheering and, like, you're the best person in the world. if you even reach space, you'll be like, "oh, we're the champions" and stuff.

tanner: ladies and gentlemen, what we need to happen today, for us to get our code submitted on time, we need to have a learning environment that is focused. if this were a basketball game, this would be fourth quarter, one minute left on the clock. we're down by five points. it's going to take all of your brains in order to get this code done on time. -understood? -let's do it. all right. -we're watching it. -did it work? it's coming. still coming. there we go. oh, what happened? -oh... -we'll find out. we'll find out. it's coding with kids. it's a disaster. (tanner laughs) (children chatting indistinct) right, but the logic of it is if it's not in our assembly zone, we're not getting points for it, correct? yeah.

so this statement here is saying, "go get it" if it's not in our zone. so it only put "item one in zone equals false"? so that's why i'm saying add one more "and" to that statement and "item zero false." that's what i was just telling you. oh, yeah. oh, yeah, you're right. first by dropping our sps next to the large, and then after we get the large, we put it in our-- but first we have to... -yeah, that's why we make the triangle. -yeah. but we haven't finished any of this. because of where the assembly zone is, this docking site is closer than this one. there's a block in the coding, which is, uh, "get assembly zone info." and we've coded it so that no matter where the assembly zones are, it'll work. we're actually going to be trying to steal from each other. so it's going to be interesting. whoa, we're winning. we decided we're picking up this one and that one, the largest, and they give .2 points each.

so if we do it properly, then we should get .4 points per second. right now we're reaching, like, 23 to 25 points. the objective that we had is to get the large item closest to us, drop the rest of our sps, drop off the large item, find the other large item, and bring that back to our assembly zone... -whoo! -whoo! in the assembly. how many points did we get? -27. -geez. that's a lot. i think we could have a chance. seeing something that's in space that we're programming on earth, that's-- that's, like, kind of crazy for me. so next strategy is either go for a medium piece or camp in our assembly zone so the other team can't dock with our items. so they can't steal. i wanna do a campfire. so our strategy is get the big marshmallows -and then have a campfire. -yes. (laughs) all right.

makayla: for our strategy, we decided to stick with our assembly zone. i'm excited because... if we can win california, we can watch the competition live at the space station. if this one docks with the second item and doesn't keep dropping it, we should be good. now the question is, does it dock and drop, dock and drop, and if it-- yeah, this is the real question. (children exclaiming) advik: we're losing .2 points every other second. -let me get my... -we have to survive. it reads the code once per second, so this region says, "okay, if item zero is in the zone." yes, item zero is in the zone, and i have item zero, and i drop it. and then it goes back and reads this again.

is item one in the zone? yes. does nobody have item zero? yes. so it'll dock it again. -he's right. -this is very hard. it's this part of the code that's broken right now. take the counter out. so this part works without the... -can i throw this away? -yeah, kill the counter. yes. bye, counter. location. item zero docking location. i'm going to have to put the drop item and then take this off and see if... -what? -you're right. you're right. take the conditional out. uh, five minutes. (suspenseful music) advik: does that work? tanner: do it.

the moment of truth is here. okay. simulation? so we're supposed to pick up both. carol: yes! now get the other, please. okay, okay, okay. we're almost there. -yes! -we got it. we got it. tanner: now camp. it's camping. it's trying to camp. -(all cheer) -yeah. all right, all right, all right, all right. so, carol. yeah, carol is going to press the button. so you're going to save as "campbell, california." "this code is my team's official competition program." -t minus 10-second count. -t minus 10. ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one... (all cheer)

woman: you can see if he can read it. it might be coffee. cream and sugar. man: when you get a chance... call the landline please. hey, jack. we have the spheres tv... enabled on space to ground four. fantastic. yeah, i'm excited to work with you guys. i'm-- obviously, this will be the first time, uh, so... man: jack fisher might be the first one through the door. first time space flyer making his way into station for the first time. (laughter) i love you back, little kiddo. woman: getting set up for the spheres experiment

that's about to take place on the space station. (overlapping chatter) for nasa versus ames. man: there's florida, idaho. some from washington, oregon. fischer: your instructions, is that correct? alvar: exactly. today, we will be doing the testing. tonight. we're gonna have about a thousand students across the country watching us. my name is alvar saenz-otero. i'm the director of the mit space systems laboratory. fischer: all right, no pressure. alternate... alvar: what inspired me to be where i am is really an innate desire to go to space. the hard part is that in real life you do not see the positioning system, the satellite parts, or the assembly area. we have to imagine them. fischer: post time for the magic. alvar: the whole world today does programming in the same languages. that's what's gonna connect the whole world. if you are working by sending your code to space station while you're in middle school, that's amazing.

i don't care who you are. if you have that ability to engineering at age ten, space should no longer be the final frontier. woman: copy that. and thank you for all the science today. okay, well, stand by... makayla: we did submit our code on the anniversary of the first people on the moon. do you think that's good luck? -that's a sign. -that could be a sign. you know who walked on the moon? -neil armstrong? -neil armstrong? carol: open it, tanner! bring down the screen. those words don't let us see. so, before i open this up, i just wanna thank you guys because this was something new for me too, and for guys to first-- be our first year, like, i'm-- i'm just really happy and-- and proud of everything you guys have done. you guys ready? all right, high fives everybody. you guys ready? (students chuckling, chatting)

all right. let's take a look at the results. (exhales deeply) girl: what does it say? fourth place. not bad for our first year. uh, gallant robotics girls took first. this is the one that we lost, so let's take a look. so far, it looks the same. they got .5 for their. we got .48. ♪♪ all right, let's see what they do. carol: they're going for ours. ♪♪ they did the same thing as ours. but look at their-- oh! look at the scores. -oh-- seriously! -no! -it was probably our time. -oh, the triangle. theirs was bigger. and theirs-- their triangle's a little bit bigger. oh, my god. guys, look. they come right for the steal. -girl: so do we. -ha! so their code had medium. so we did lose to a better code. i will say that.

even though we didn't win, it was pretty cool for us to see that we actually made it to the top five. the gallant girls had worked really hard for their code. good job. and i liked that we had the same strategy as them, that we thought alike. throughout this week, we're gonna be taking a look at the other school's code... ♪♪ ...and helping them improve it. so that it represents california in the best way possible. we're all gonna be part of the california team. the unicorn, that's our mascot. advik: i know they put the first place code up there, but our code was almost exactly the same. we still did really good for us first timers. hats off to your guys for picking the strategy. that's gonna go up to the space station. makayla: i think because we work so well together as a team we just got back up, brushed ourselves off, and we were off again helping the team that actually won. now, we're just trying to win for california. come on, get your hands in, get your hands in.

and no matter what happens, we still achieved something. -one, two, three! -team california! ♪♪ (chuckles) this robotics program has lit up my fire because with this one i found out that instead i want to do it by myself. so i feel like i can do more, a lot more. woman: so all the schools are coming today that competed?

makayla: today, it's the whole competition. we basically get to see the game in zero gravity. this is the flag that's gonna be used to represent all of california. carol, you can take it. five months ago, if you would have asked me if i was gonna have this wonderful, amazing experience, i would've said no way. man: and now boarding the transfer van for the trip to the launchpad. man 2: it's an exciting moment. man 3: you know you're going to-- on a crazy adventure and it's about to start, so you... tanner: i'm hoping that they let me know what their journey is after this. it's good to know that all the-- all the hard work this year is over, and today is just about enjoying nasa again, and, uh, can't beat that. woman: and these students are literally reaching for the stars.

they are helping out on the international space station. man: the international space station is a wonderful accomplishment. it was born at the end of the cold war. it's enabled many nations to be one in space. man 2: apollo 11, the astronauts are... man 3: expressing again one final time for the start of this sentimental journey into history, taking aim on the international space station. man 4: the summer of 2011, the space station was complete. you all are gonna be the generation that goes to mars, so i call you the space generation. somebody was living and working in space your entire life. man 5: we will never forget the role the space shuttle played in its creation. farewell, iss. make us proud. ♪♪ man 6: zero gravity robotics, iss finals. man 7: lots of cool middle schools form around the county. woman: i want to congratulate everybody around the world. i am so proud of all of the work that you've done. you have written code to control satellites

on the international space station. so, everybody across the country, give yourselves a round of applause right now. and best of luck. so let's get this competition started. if we win here, then we go here against... we're versus someone and versus someone, and then if we win, we gotta... i hope we can at least win the conference b. maybe not the whole thing, but at least conference b. -anybody need a bracket? -i need one. i need the schedule for the teams. (overlapping chatter) and, everybody, make lots of noise for the space station on the center screen. (cheering and applause) woman: station imp for two, fisch. we are onboard with you and you are looking marvelous. how you doing, cady? i am great, but i will tell you

that i've got some folks here and around country. there are hundreds of kids, and they are ready... my favorite part about living up there was the flying. i loved it. it was like being peter pan. you start to think and live and play in entirely different ways. when i was a kid, girls didn't become astronauts. for me, it took going to college, being in a classroom, and listening to a talk by dr. sally ride, the first american woman astronaut, to realize that this maybe could be me. man: sts-7 and america's first woman astronaut. cady: she had this adventure in her job, and this sense of mission. that she was part of something that was bigger than she was. the way we get to the future is when people show us the way.

man: after her third flight in space, now having logged 179 hours... advik: meet the astronaut, jack fischer. well, hello to all my friends in core 16. joyce and cady, and the whole team that put spheres together. what a great program. and it's here, and you're in the finals. all of you are champions. you've gotten this far, and let this only be the first step. don't let this be the end. let this be the start of a journey, a lifelong journey of learning, where you grow and contribute to society. i think given what you've done so far, the future is bright for what you can accomplish. so, with that, good luck to all of the contestants, and let the games begin. (cheers and applause) cady: you too, fisch. that was an awesome, awesome intro, and we are ready for you to start.