SpaceX CRS-16: Dragon Capsule Delivers Student Experiments to the ISS
The U.S. National Laboratory on the International Space Station (ISSInternational Space Station) is enabling a revolution in microgravityThe condition of perceived weightlessness created when an object is in free fall, for example when an object is in orbital motion. Microgravity alters many observable phenomena within the physical and life sciences, allowing scientists to study things in ways not possible on Earth. The International Space Station provides access to a persistent microgravity environment. research by opening up the ISS to a wide range of potential researchers, including middle and high school students! The SpaceX Dragon capsule that launched on December 5 carried eight education payloads along with 5,000 pounds of other cargo. It reached the ISS on December 7, and some of the student experiments are already underway this week!
Helping students send these experiments to space is a major way that the ISS National Lab achieves one of its core goals: to engage and excite the next generation of scientists and explorers.
Groot and Rocket go to the ISS
This mission carries the winning experiments from the Guardians of the Galaxy Space Station Challenge, a Space Station Explorers program enabled by a partnership between the ISS National Lab and Marvel Entertainment. Middle school and high school students all over the U.S. submitted concepts for experiments inspired by two characters in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise: Groot (representing life science, especially plant biology and regenerative medicine) and Rocket (representing technology and materials science).
This experiment seeks to explore an alternative method for watering plants in the absence of gravity. Aeroponic farming utilizes a misting device to deliver water to the plant roots and an air pump to blow excess water off of the roots. In space, aeroponic farming has advantages over other methods of watering plants that are gravity dependent. The project aims to test mister behavior in microgravity—specifically, how the water behaves immediately after it is ejected from the head of the nozzle and how moving air affects the water on the roots in the absence of gravity. Too much water is just as bad for plants as too little water, and root rot from over-watering can be a problem when growing plants in space. Results from this experiment may have profound implications for both the future of spaceflight and for life on Earth by enabling humans to grow fruits and vegetables in microgravity, thus eliminating a major obstacle for long-term spaceflight.
Staying healthy in space is extremely important. A broken tooth or a lost filling is painful on Earth, but in space, it can be detrimental to an astronaut’s health. This experiment intends to analyze the effectiveness in microgravity of a dental glue that is activated by ultraviolet (UV) light. The team proposes to treat simulated, broken teeth with the dental glue, expose them to UV light, and observe them onboard the space station. Soldering in microgravity results in weaker bonds due to air bubbles, and the team wonders whether the same will happen with UV-activated glue.
Experimenters: Olivia Rothenberg, Sophie Muncie, Brayden Hall, Connor Raskin, Adam Simpson, Luke Rigdon, Chaya Rubinstein, Isobel Salters, Skyler Verkouteren, Fintan Harwood, and Kallie Verkouteren (grades 5-12)
Schools: iLEAD charter schools including Santa Clarita Valley International (SCVI) High School, Castaic, CA
Program: DreamUp
Commercial Service Provider: NanoRacks
The iLEAD DreamUp 2018 Launch Team is named for the iLEAD (International, Leadership, Entrepreneurial development, Arts, Design thinking) community of charter schools in California and Ohio. These middle and high school students developed an experiment inspired by the question: “Can drinking coffee in space help astronauts have better oral hygiene?”
On Earth, drinking regular coffee slows or halts the growth of Streptococcus mutans, a type of bacteria in the mouth that is known to cause tooth decay. The students want to test whether microgravity changes the way S. mutans responds to coffee. In past ISS experiments, exposure to microgravity has made some types of bacteria change their rates of metabolism and growth.
The students have prepared two tube-shaped fluids mixing enclosure tubes (also called MixStix), each with three chambers. One end-chamber contains a small disc filled with dried S. mutans bacteria. The middle chamber has a nutrient-rich liquid that simulates saliva. The other end-chamber contains freeze-dried coffee powder.
One of the MixStix tubes stays on the ground and the other flies to the ISS. When the flight tube arrives onboard the space station, the clamps separating the chambers will be opened in a specific order. First, the bacteria will be combined with the liquid and allowed to grow for two days. Then the coffee will be added to that mixture. After one more day, the mixture will be cooled to near freezing to stop all bacterial growth.
When the iLEAD team gets the flight tube back, the students will compare the concentrations of bacteria in the flight and ground experiments.
Experimenters: Graham Shunk, Xavier Gomez, Srikar Kaligotla, Jamison Fuller, and Finn Poulin
Schools: Multiple high schools in the Durham, NC area
Program: Go For Launch! by Higher Orbits
Team Orion, a group of high school students near Durham, North Carolina, has designed an experiment that takes advantage of two aspects of the ISS environment: microgravity and increased radiation. The team is studying Cladosporium sphaerospermum, a species of radiotrophic fungi that can harness radiation to produce energy for its cells. The experiment will observe how well C. sphaerospermum can grow and absorb ionizing radiation in microgravity.
Orbiting above Earth’s atmosphere, the ISS receives slightly more radiation than Earth’s surface does. It’s not enough to make astronauts sick, even after a year of exposure. However, voyaging to the moon, Mars, or beyond will take astronauts outside not just Earth’s atmosphere, but also Earth’s magnetic field. This will expose astronauts to more intense radiation from both the sun and other objects in the galaxy such as supernovae. Several types of high-energy radiation, collectively called ionizing radiation, can damage DNA and increase the risk of cancer and other diseases.
All of our spacecraft, including the modules of the ISS, are built with some radiation shielding. But a long-distance space mission would require more robust shielding to protect the crew from dangerous levels of exposure. For a crewed mission to Mars, it will be important to develop lightweight materials that block and/or absorb radiation.
One possible radiation-shielding material is a living fungus! Based on Team Orion’s concept, Space Tango technicians developed an experiment that fits into a 10-centimeter CubeLab. The radiotrophic fungus C. sphaerospermum grows on a nutrient-rich, gel-like growth medium in a Petri dish. A detector will measure two types of ionizing radiation: gamma rays and X-rays. Existing sensors on the space station measure the ambient radiation for comparison. A small camera in the CubeLab will take a picture of the dish once a day for 30 days.