be selected to participate. Due to
the extremely limited resources in
both available cargo room on the
spacecraft, and the astronauts’
time aboard the ISS to conduct the
experiments, the selection process
sends what are hopefully the most
beneficial experiments into orbit.
Their experiments must also pass
all of NASA’s requirements for
spaceflight just like any other cargo.
But I jumped ahead a bit; first
each community that participates
in SSEP has to conduct their own
local Flight Experiment Design
Competition. Student teams
from across the community will
be competing against other
teams to have their experiment
fly in low earth orbit using a
real research mini-laboratory
reserved for their community.
The teams from across the
community must submit formal
research proposals which will go
through a two-step review process
to select the flight experiment for
the community which will in turn be
submitted to SSEP for evaluation.
The local design competition
from the program start, through
experiment design, and finally
ending in their proposal submission,
runs at least nine weeks.
Each community is competing
to fly their experiment in low
earth orbit using a mini-laboratory
(pictured) aboard the ISS. Astronauts
will conduct the experiment in
orbit, usually within days of the
departure of the latest SpaceX
Dragon cargo capsule which will
return the executed experiments
back to earth so the teams can
analyze their results. The astronauts
truly enjoy working with these
student experiments and after
returning to Earth, many of them
have followed up with the design
teams of the experiment they
performed to see what knowledge
was gained from the experiment.
Since its inception in June of
2010, eight SSEP flight opportunities
have been offered with a total of 84
communities having participated in
the program. The communities have
submitted, to date, a total of 7,922
flight experiment proposals. A total
of 96 experiments will have flown so
far with today’s launch, including 27
that flew aboard the last two flights
of the Space Shuttle. If you are doing
the math, you will see that some
communities have actually had
experiments on more than one flight!
Another 19 experiments are slated
to fly aboard the ORB-3 flight that, as
of this writing, is currently scheduled
to launch just after midnight on
October 14th of this year from the
Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on
Wallops Island, VA. More than 35,000
students, ranging from grades 5-15
have participated in experiment
design and proposal writing so far.
And there is even a way for
the more arts oriented student to
participate. Each mission sends
Now let’s go back to some of
those experiments mentioned
above. Even with their detailed
scientific names, they are not all as
complex as you might believe. For
example, the “Affected Efficacy
of Sprayed Enamel Coating as a
Corrosion Inhibitor” experiment is
comparing the effectiveness of
Rust-Oleum paint in microgravity as
compared to its performance here
on earth. Using Coca-Cola as a
corrosive agent, they will expose an
iron disk that was previously coated
with Rust-Oleum, and another
that is not coated, to the corrosive
agent for 72 hours and then stop
the corrosive process by absorbing
the Coca-Cola with a polymer.
A duplicate example of the “Affected Efficacy of Sprayed Enamel Coating as a Corrision Inhibitor” student
experiment which was transported to the International Space Station. Credit: Lloyd Campbell
a number of patch designs into
orbit also. If an experiment from
your community is selected, up to
two patches (printed on paper)
from your community can also fly
with the experiment. Once again,
the community would conduct its
own competition for patch designs
and select one or two to be sent
to SSEP. The patch images are
returned after the flight so they can
be displayed by the community.
To learn more about
SSEP and how your
community could have
an expe riment fly to the
space station, visit
http://ssep.ncesse.org/.
After retrieval of their experiments
from Earth orbit they will examine
the discs under a microscope.
Another experiment is studying
mold growth on white bread in
microgravity, yet another is analyzing
Lettuce growth in microgravity and
how long it takes to germinate. So as
you can see, while they’re looking
for results to prove or disprove a
theory, or to determine if something
is viable (such as growing lettuce
in microgravity), the experiment
itself can be quite simple, it’s the
science behind it that is important.
As you may already know,
the Antares rocket did take
flight that glorious July afternoon
and the experiments are now
onboard the ISS. The completed
experiments are currently scheduled
to return to Earth aboard the
next SpaceX cargo mission.
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