{"id":14488,"date":"2017-06-11T17:28:16","date_gmt":"2017-06-11T21:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14488"},"modified":"2017-06-11T17:28:16","modified_gmt":"2017-06-11T21:28:16","slug":"high-school-team-sends-experiment-to-the-international-space-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14488","title":{"rendered":"High school team sends experiment to the International Space Station"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spacex.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SpaceX<\/a> Dragon spacecraft recently berthed to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/mission_pages\/station\/main\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">International Space Station<\/a>\u00a0and delivered over a ton of scientific experiments, including many student projects. (See NASA articles <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/feature\/dragon-spacecraft-prepared-to-resupply-international-space-station\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/press-release\/new-nasa-experiments-research-headed-to-international-space-station\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.) Student groups can participate in ISS science via programs such as these:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/nanoracks.com\/markets\/educational\/\" target=\"_d\">Educational Space Research Programs | NanoRacks\/ISS Microgravity Research\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dreamup.org\/\" target=\"_d\">Educational Space Research for Students \u2013 DreamUp<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/ssep.ncesse.org\/\" target=\"_d\">SSEP | Student Spaceflight Experiments Program<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/mission_pages\/station\/research\/nlab\/index.html\" target=\"_d\">National Laboratory | NASA<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here is an example of a high school team in Singapore sending an experiment to the ISS:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sas.edu.sg\/page.cfm?p=1033&amp;newsid=2255\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Singapore American School (SAS) sends Singapore&#8217;s first experiment<br \/>\nto the International Space Station<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>SINGAPORE, June 5, 2017<\/strong> \u2014 On Sunday, June 4, SpaceX&#8217;s Falcon 9 successfully lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United States, and sent the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. The spacecraft was carrying an experiment built by students at the Singapore American School (SAS) \u2014 the first ever experiment to be sent to space by high schoolers in Singapore.<\/p>\n<p>The MicroLab \u2014 a container that encases a scientific experiment \u2014 is scheduled to arrive on the International Space Station (ISS) after two days of spaceflight. This is the first time a Singaporean experiment will be installed by astronauts on board the ISS.<\/p>\n<p>For over a year, student leader Sunita Srivatsan and her team of five \u2014 Jaclyn Chan, Keshav Jagannath, Annie Kim, Madeline Smith, and Devansh Tandon, guided by SAS Robotics coaches Meredith White and Bart Millar \u2014 have been meticulously planning, collaborating, and researching to set up an experiment to study the effects of microgravity on mutations in bacteria.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the Bhattacharya Space Enterprise program and under the mentorship of ex-National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientist Dr. Bidushi Bhattacharya, CEO and founder of Bhattacharya Space Enterprises and Priyadarshini Majumdar, a National University of Singapore graduate, the students learned about both the research and commercial aspects of space technology.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>&#8220;This is a very exciting time for commercial spacetech growth, thanks to companies such as SpaceX. Traditionally, space-related career paths were feasible for students from larger nations, but rapid privatization and miniaturization of electronics has made space accessible globally. I am really excited about this group of students in Singapore who are actually delivering something into orbit,&#8221; said Dr. Bhattacharya.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Dr. Chip Kimball, superintendent of SAS, who is a strong advocate of exploring interests and pursuing passions said,<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>&#8220;Backed by a culture of possibilities, students at SAS are offered every opportunity to dive deep into an area of interest while building competence and self-efficacy to engage and impact the world around them. It has to be one of the most exciting things in the world to be able to take the science they&#8217;re learning and applying it to a new frontier.&#8221; <\/em><\/p>\n<p>The SAS Foundation, an organization that continues to strengthen the school for the future by funding educational programs, operations, and capital initiatives, has been a strong supporter of this project. The organization paid for mentor training in San Jose, biological and mechanical materials to create the experiment, orbital launch services on the Falcon 9 spacecraft, and leased space aboard the ISS.<\/p>\n<p>Majumdar was instrumental in encouraging the team to focus on the various stages of the mission, formulate a plan and execute it. In six months time, the students went from finding it hard to visualize how everything would fit into a MicroLab to building the engineering model and constructing the flight model in about a week.<\/p>\n<p>The MicroLab will test radiation levels in space using melanin genes implanted in E. coli bacteria. Once the rocket&#8217;s capsule docks at the ISS, astronauts will offload the MicroLab and plug it into a rack that provides the power needed to run the experiment in a microgravity environment. Driven by a circuit board and computer programme that the students designed, the experiment will run for one month.<\/p>\n<p>Periodically, astronauts will download data and photos back to earth so the students can collect, analyze, and monitor their experiment. The students will also be conducting their ground truth (control) experiments here at the school after the experiment is returned to them post-flight. If the team&#8217;s hypothesis is proven true, NASA will genetically modify plants to produce more melanin to make growing plants in the conditions of space easier.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>&#8220;The main purpose of this experiment is to make space technology development a tangible career option for students. Young people across Singapore see this project as something that has been built by kids their age, handed off to NASA and managed by astronauts for them. We are hoping to take this to other schools in Singapore in the coming years,&#8221; said Dr. Bhattacharya.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>According to Sunita Srivatsan, SAS senior and team leader for the project,<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em> &#8220;It&#8217;s not often that high schoolers get an opportunity of this magnitude, and we&#8217;re grateful to the SAS community, the SAS Foundation, and to our coaches and mentors. It wasn&#8217;t always smooth sailing, but the idea that our experiment could potentially impact the future of space research, kept us focused in the face of roadblocks and challenges.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>===<\/p>\n<p>Here is a video about the science that went to the station:<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kv-hgH4vnvo?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">=====<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none;\" src=\"http:\/\/rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/cm?t=hobbyspace&amp;o=1&amp;p=12&amp;l=ur1&amp;category=primemusic&amp;banner=0Y451P54C03XJ9ZRPK82&amp;f=ifr&amp;lc=pf4&amp;linkID=DJBJV27TG3YGS5GC\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft recently berthed to the International Space Station\u00a0and delivered over a ton of scientific experiments, including many student projects. (See NASA articles here and here.) Student groups can participate in ISS science via programs such as these: Educational Space Research Programs | NanoRacks\/ISS Microgravity Research\u00a0 Educational Space Research for Students \u2013 DreamUp &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14488\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">High school team sends experiment to the International Space Station<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,95,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-micro-g-rd","category-space-participation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-3LG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9517,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=9517","url_meta":{"origin":14488,"position":0},"title":"DreamUP! &#8211; Raising money to send student projects to space","author":"TopSpacer","date":"December 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0DreamUP!\u00a0program created by NanoRacks and\u00a0FISE\u00a0( Foundation for International Space Education) aims to get STEM projects onto the International Space Station: DreamUp: NanoRacks Breaking New Ground in STEM Education Houston, TX\u2014December 19th, 2014 \u2013 DreamUp, powered by NanoRacks, is a nonprofit organization now providing a place for student project teams to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Education&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.vimeocdn.com\/video\/499928156_640.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13965,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=13965","url_meta":{"origin":14488,"position":1},"title":"SpaceX Dragon berths to ISS. 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Astronauts on the station reached out with a robotic arm, snagged the Dragon, and then attached the craft to the station: https:\/\/youtu.be\/OyinPlh8A98 The Dragon carries over 5,000 pounds (2300 kg)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Education&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/V3PO1-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15166,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=15166","url_meta":{"origin":14488,"position":2},"title":"Kickstarter for STEM program with experiments for students to compare with results on ISS","author":"TopSpacer","date":"November 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A Kickstarter has opened to back a program to let students run crystal and microbe growing experiments on the ground to compare with similar experiments on the International Space Station: Kickstarter for 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Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP)\u00a0Mission 9 to the International Space Station Opportunity for Schools to Engage Grade 5-16 Students in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Education&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15455,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=15455","url_meta":{"origin":14488,"position":4},"title":"Guardians of the Galaxy Space Station Challenge to select student experiments for ISS","author":"TopSpacer","date":"January 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A contest opens for students to win an opportunity to send an experiment to the International Space Station: CASIS and Marvel Entertainment Unveil Guardians of the Galaxy Space Station Challenge -- Challenge Allows Students Ages 13-18 to Submit Flight Concepts for Microgravity Research -- --Two Student Projects Will be Selected\u2026","rel":"","context":"In 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