>> So the International Space Station these days an unparallel
laboratory; a lot of research happening
around the clock on board.
Obviously, some of the greatest minds
in the scientific community in involved, but also a great--
a lot of great chances these days
for the scientists of tomorrows.
The up and comers coming through school
to get their research actually onboard the International Space
Station, so today we're going
to learn a little bit more about that.
I'm joined by Dr. Jeff Goldstein, who's the Director
for the National Center of Earth and Space Science Education,
and they're currently operating the Student Space Flight
Experiments Program.
One of these great opportunities to get students involved
at an early age; get them excited
about scientific research, and then see some real results.
So first off Jeff, thank you so much for joining me.
I really appreciate it.
And if you could start us off maybe just tell us a little bit
about the Center and what he Student Space Flight Experiments
Program is looking to accomplish.
>> Well, really great to be with you this morning over here.
The Center oversees the creation and delivery
of large-scale national Science, Technology, Engineering,
and Math programs, which is the familiar acronym STEM.
And the two core goals that provide students
in general an understanding of how science
and technology works; it addresses science literacy
at the most fundamental level, but it's also about inspiring
and engaging the next generation of America's scientists
and engineers, and really getting them excited using the
Earth and Space Sciences as the vehicle.
We also offer programs like the Student Space Flight Experiments
Program internationally to communities across the world
through our international arm,
which is the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education.
>> All right, well again, it's great to hear
about just these opportunities are out there,
and obviously we want to get as many students involved
as possible, and it's a pretty exciting time for you guys.
You actually have eighteen more experiments getting ready to fly
in the next orbital vehicle.
Real quick just tell us a little bit about some
of the important research that's going to be going up;
what are the important things we want to know about that,
the next load on its way up?
>> Well, the Orb-3 vehicle is carrying the Yankee Clipper SSEP
experiments' payload of eighteen experiments,
and what's interesting is that each one
of these SSEP missions engages a number of communities;
in this case eighteen communities
across the U.S. and Canada.
And these students are immersed
in a real formal research competition.
We've got in the case of this upcoming mission 6,860 students
that were fully engaged in micro gravity experiment design
and proposal writing, and that led
to 1,487 proposals from student teams.
And we then called that down
so that the Step 2 National Review Board selected one flight
experiment for each of the eighteen communities,
and that's what's flying; that's what's going
to be flying on Orb-3.
And so each of these experiments represent hundreds of students
across that community that were vying for that experiment slot,
and hundreds of students absolutely immersed
in authentic experiment design and proposal writing.
What's also kind of interesting is that this program is open
to grades five through sixteen,
so it goes from upper elementary grade five right
through two year and four year colleges and universities.
So it really provides a very great pipeline approach
to this immersive experience, and I can tell you
that we've got three of the eighteen experiments
from the upper elementary level, nine from middle school,
five from high school, and one
from four year colleges and universities.
So you asked about the kinds of science that are being performed
on orbit through this Mission 6 to ISS;
it's a whole range of science.
The students have the ability to design micro gravity experiments
in a science discipline of their choice, but must be constrained
by the operation of the real mini laboratory
that they must use.
And so we have experiments in crystal growth,
efficacy of composting in micro gravity,
lots of bacterial studies including the growth
of coliform bacteria, the efficacy of biocides
on bacteria, the efficacy of E. coli attachment to food,
growth and development of mosquitoes and house flies,
sea germination and geotropism studies, hydroponics,
studies of micro aquatic life, in this particular case,
the development of fairy shrimp, and also there's an experiment,
an elementary experiment, on the rate of food spoilage.
But maybe it would be nice to highlight two
of these experiments, which are I think quite remarkable.
The first is North Charleston, South Carolina,
they're on their second SSEP opportunity,
and we've got a high school team that is looking
at tin whisker development in Space,
which are these metallic crystal instructors that grow
on printed circuit boards.
It's a serious problem in Space, and they've been working
with a number of NASA researchers as advisors on this.
What's interesting is that they proposed a year ago and got
to the finalist level, but didn't get selected for flight,
and based on the strength and weakness comments
from the Review Panel they resubmitted, they corrected some
of the issues, and now they're a flight experiment.
So this is you know; this is how real research is done,
and these high-school students are experiencing that.
The other one to mention is
that the American University is leading a two
and four-year consortium of seven colleges and universities
in the D.C. Metro area,
and there the students are undergraduates that are studying
to be science teachers.
And so the idea was to immerse these students in real research
so that they can have a better understanding of how science
and technology work and that would translate
into you know remarkable capability inside the science
classroom for them.
>> And so I mean just wow really hitting kind
of the full gamut getting the same experience as you said
that actual researchers are getting,
and just I mean the range of ages is very impressive.
So real quick before we close;
how can students get involved with this?
Is there a website to go to?
What is the best way to you know for any student who watches this
to go get their teacher and say hey, I mean,
this is something we want to do?
>> Yeah, we-- the Student Space Flight Experiments Program has a
dedicated website, so if you look at--
if you go into your browser and put in SSEP
or Student Space Flight Experiments Program you can go
right to the website.
We've got Mission 8 that was just announced last week,
which is our tenth flight opportunity in believe it
or not just four and a half years, and we are now talking
to communities across the country; in fact,
we've got a lot of communities in Canada that are interested
in starting program operations in February of 2015
with a flight to ISS in the Fall of 2015.
So if any communities are interested in figuring
out how they can come aboard
and get their own very real Space program,
they should go to the website.
And I should also, by the way,
say that this is a remarkable effort that has enabled
with this wonderful Space Act Agreement between NASA
and NanoRacks, and this is a commercial Space venture
that is enabled through that commercialization on orbit,
and we are also working in partnership with the Center
for the Advancement of Science in Space,
which runs the U.S. National Laboratory on ISS.
So this is what partnership is really all about.
>> And it's always great to see those partnerships come
in for a wish, and especially
when it means inspiring the researchers of tomorrow
and getting them onboard.
So again, Dr. Jeff Goldstein, the Director
of the National Center for Earth and Space Education talking
to us about the Student Space Flight Experiments Program.
Get involved, follow along, it's a really great program.
Jeff, thank you so much
for joining me today I really appreciate it.
>> You're very, very welcome. ------------------------------52dfd34d69d3--