Student Researchers Study Crystal Growth on the Space Station
The 2018 Wisconsin Space Crystals team at the Space Life Sciences Laboratory at Kennedy Space Center preparing their samples for launch.
Media Credit: Cheryl Kelly-VanDomelen and Stephanie Twesme
A group of Wisconsin students took their studies of crystal growth out of this world—to the International Space Station (ISSInternational Space Station) U.S. National Laboratory! The crystal growth experiment, developed by the student winners of the 2018 Wisconsin Crystal Growing Competition, recently launched to the ISS on SpaceX’s 17th commercial resupply services mission.
Students from the Wisconsin Crystal Growing Competition at at the Space Life Sciences Laboratory at Kennedy Space Center preparing samples for launch.
Media Credit: Cheryl Kelly-VanDomelen and Stephanie Twesme
The student researchers traveled to Florida for the launch, and although launch slips prevented some of the students from attending the actual launch, they were able to present their research at Kennedy Space Center and participate in a poster session. The students that had to return home before the launch were able to watch their experiment take flight via the NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration TV livestream of the launch. An overview of the students’ trip, available online, includes a personal account from one of the student researchers.
The students were also excited to have the opportunity to interact via live video with crew members onboard the ISS National Lab while the astronauts conducted their investigation. This allowed the students to answer any questions the crew had about carrying out the experiment.
NASA astronaut Nick Hague onboard the ISS holding the PCG Kit bag containing the Wisconsin Space Crystals experiment.
Media Credit: NASA
The Wisconsin Crystal Growing Competition is a free educational program available to Wisconsin students in grades 7 and higher, organized by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Chemistry Department’s Molecular Structure Laboratory. For the contest, students compete to grow the largest, highest-quality crystal on the ground. Winning students then have the opportunity to test their optimized conditions for Earth-based crystallization against crystallization in the 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. environment of the ISS. The program is part of the Space Station Explorers consortium, a growing community of ISS National Lab partner organizations working to leverage the unique platform of the ISS to provide valuable educational experiences.
Learn more about the Wisconsin Crystal Growing Competition in the Upward spotlight article “Student Contest Winners Fly Crystals to Space” and in the ISS360 article “Taking Crystallization from the Classroom to the Space Station.”