PUPILS at a Wilmslow primary school have created a computer programme which has ended up being used in space.

Year six children at Lacey Green Primary Academy have worked together during computing lessons to build a programme, the result of which made its way onto the International Space Station (ISS).

The Barlow Road school participated in Mission Zero, a scheme organised by the European Space Agency, which requires students to create a programme that would run on an Astro Pi computer on board the ISS.

The year six children coded the design of an image, before programming the background to be dependent on a reading from the colour and luminosity sensor of the ISS computer.

The image was then displayed on the screen of the computer, allowing astronauts to see it during the day.

Adam Jenkins, computing lead at Lacey Green, said these were the first students at Lacey Green to get involved with this programme, but hopefully not the last.

Knutsford Guardian: The final programme coded by Lacey Green studentsThe final programme coded by Lacey Green students (Image: Lacey Green Primary Academy)

He added: "This is the first time I’ve been involved myself. The students worked in pairs with a lot of support, they already have a decent knowledge of programming so had a base before this.

"They learned [programming language] Python for this, it’s a similar language to one they already knew so wasn’t too complicated.

"This runs every year, we’d love to get them involved again, maybe even with other programmes."

Adam also discussed potentially getting the children involved with Mission Space Lab, a similar programme which could again see them get their work sent to the ISS.

When they realised their work would be sent to space, the children were ecstatic.

"One kid just told me ‘I’ve never sent anything to space before!’," Adam added.

"They got a certificate with the exact place the space station was when their programme ran, so that’s quite a special thing for them."