Zero Robotics is an educational outreach program originally founded by Prof. David Miller and now led by Prof. Danielle Wood, the Media Lab's Space Enabled research group, and the Innovation Learning Center. The program provides the opportunity for middle school educators and students to write programming for the NASA Astrobee robot on the International Space Station.

For five weeks during summer 2024, as part of this program over 700 middle school students across the country participated in a game challenge. This year's game has been called "Lost in Space." For the fictional game scenario, students ask the Astrobee robot to help an astronaut who needs to be rescued from the ISS after it was struck by space debris. As part of the game and coding strategy, they demonstrate the ability for Astrobee to recognize hand gestures from American Sign Language.

This project is supported by many sponsors, including the Aerospace Corporation, the ISS National Laboratory, NASA, NSF, and others. MIT-funded interns via the MIT MSRP and MIT UROP programs have also helped provide technical support to the national players. The overall program hosted a regional in-person Field Day on July 18, where about 200 local middle school students and their mentors visited the MIT Media Lab.

This year, five high school interns have also helped support Zero Robotics; these five interns are sponsored by Media Lab director's fellow Jaylen Brown's nonprofit, the 7uice Foundation.