Raspberry Pi-Powered EZIE-Mag Kits Let Citizen Scientists Be Part of a NASA CubeSat Mission

The EZIE team at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) is looking for citizen scientists to become contributing members of a NASA experiment to view the magnetic fingerprint of the Earth's upper atmosphere and the fringes of space — and has 700 Raspberry Pi-powered experimentation kits to give away.

"EZIE-Mag provides the mission with a unique opportunity to engage citizen scientists in this important research," explains Nelli Mosavi-Hoyer, PhD, project manager for EZIE at Johns Hopkins APL. "Measurements made by these kits will be complementary to data collected by the three EZIE spacecraft."

The trio of EZIE CubeSats, due to launch late next year, are the core of NASA's Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer program — the organization's first mission to record the magnetic fingerprints of the Earth's auroral electrojets, electrical currents which flow between the fringes of our atmosphere and the surrounding space. These currents are to be mapped by the CubeSats by the EZIE mission itself, but EZIE-MAG aims to provide additional data from the ground.

"It should be inclusive, not exclusive," says Jesper Gjerloev, PhD, EZIE project scientist, of citizen scientists' ability to work with the project to provide ground readings. "The problem was that it just wasn’t feasible." The reason: the cost of the equipment, with devices similar to those used in the mission itself custom between $25,000 and $500,000. The solution: a much lower-cost sensor connected to a Raspberry Pi Zero single-board computer.

Rob Barnes, EZIE ground systems engineer at APL, put together the prototypes following inspiration from a science fair project he'd conducted with his niece and nephew. The resulting device pairs the main low-cost magnetometer sensor with a GPS for accurate time and location data and connects them both to a Raspberry Pi Zero — bringing the cost of the kit down to just $200, low enough for the team to distribute them to schools free of charge.

“When we distribute EZIE-Mags, the data that's going to come in from all these schools and places is actually going to be included as part of the mission database," Barnes explains. "We're going to do real science with it. You get all the parts and they just snap together, and you’re done."

The EZIE-Mag program has partnered with the Indigenous Education Institute and Little Singer Community School to set up five Indigenous-based, collaborative workspaces which will be equipped with EZIE-Mag kits — while still more, up to 700 in total, are to be distributed to schools in underserved communities.

"They're actively participating, providing data that is used in our solutions," Gjerloev says of the schools' contributions through the project. "As a middle schooler or high schooler, you can say, 'I'm actually providing data and making measurements that are important and being used for a NASA mission.' That’s the way it should be. It’s much more exciting than sending out a flyer."

Information on the EZIE-Mag project, and an application form for a kit, is available on the project website.