File:Education experiments going up on SpaceX.png: Difference between revisions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX3MyVgU7Ew&feature=youtu.be Video: Students go to new heights, with new challenges

CASIS -- Science in Space / http://www.iss-casis.org/

http://www.iss-casis.org/Education.aspx

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http://blogs.nasa.gov/spacex/wp-content/uploads/sites/227/2015/06/SpaceX_NASA_CRS-7_PressKit.pdf

The Dragon spacecraft will be filled with more than 4,000 pounds of supplies and payloads, including critical materials to support more than 30 student research investigations and more than 35 of approximately 250 science and research investigations that will occur during Expeditions 44 and 45. Science payloads will offer new insight to combustion in microgravity, perform the first space-based observations of meteors entering Earth’s atmosphere, continue solving potential crew health risks, and make new strides toward being able to grow food in space.

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Students Studying Space and Earth

National Design Challenge

CASIS has developed a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education initiative titled the National Design Challenge (NDC), intended to further CASIS efforts in encouraging students to become more excited about science. Two Houston, TX schools and three Denver area schools will be sending seven total investigations to the ISS National Lab:

Bell Middle School from Golden, CO will evaluate if vermicomposting in a closed system has the same efficiency in microgravity as it does on Earth.

Chatfield Senior High School, Littleton, CO hopes to establish the viability of algal hydrogen production in space. In specific, the students hope to show that if algae are removed from the gravitational influence of Earth, it will still produce hydrogen in a sulfur deprived environment.

Centaurus High School, Lafayette, CO will study the Effects of Simulated Gravity on Bacterial Lag Phase in a MicroGravitational Environment.

Awty International School (Houston, TX) and teacher Angela Glidewell’s eighth-grade class will evaluate how cosmic radiation poses a serious threat to humans as they continue to inhabit the ISS. The goal is to investigate the feasibility of using Boron-enhanced high-density polyethylene material for shielding against galactic cosmic radiation and solar particle events.

Also at Awty International School, teacher Jessika Smith’s fifth-grade class is interested in determining whether yeast cells produce more carbon dioxide in microgravity than on Earth. Through this inquiry, the students hope to help engineers optimize life support systems for spacecraft and understand how yeast cells can be grown in space for medical research.

Duchesne Academy and teacher Kathy Duquesney’s eighth-grade class will evaluate the effects of microgravity and light spectral quality (i.e., color of light) on plant growth in a CubeSat. This experiment is important for understanding how plants with high nutritional content can be grown on Earth in closed environments and on the ISS to support future long duration spaceflight.

Also from Duchesne Academy, Susan Knizner’s fourth-grade students will examine the effect of different wavelengths of light on algae oxygen production in microgravity. Specifically, they will examine how different light wavelengths affect the growth of algae, Chlorella vulgaris, in microgravity. The students will monitor the oxygen released through the process of photosynthesis to determine the optimal color of light for algae growth in microgravity.

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Growing Food on a Changing Planet: NASA Brings Food Security Down to Earth at Expo Milano -- June 2015

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Growing Food in Space, Science Experiments for Students in the UK -- May 2015]

... to try to determine whether one day astronauts could grow their own food in space. "For years, scientists have been researching whether the human race can survive on another planet in the future. In order to do this, we need to grow food in space and we need your help..." can humans survive on another planet like Mars Video: Rocket Science talks food in space

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Lakewood High in Denver develops "HydroFuge, a piece of equipment that is designed to store and grow a plant in zero gravity..." -- April 2015 / http://kdvr.com/2015/04/09/lakewood-h-s-students-invention-heading-to-space-station-to-grow-food/

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"VEGGIE" / NASA / April 2014 -- http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/veggie/

Veggie's video highlights from NASA -- https://youtu.be/tixSKAAfiiw

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Growing Food for Space and Earth: NASA’s Contributions to Vertical Farming

Raymond M. Wheeler, Dr. , NASA, Kennedy Space Ctr, FL

Perhaps one of the first demonstrations of vertical farming was carried out by NASA with the Biomass Production Chamber at Kennedy Space Center, FL. Plants were grown on four circular shaped shelves stacked vertically in a closed chamber, with lighting provided with 96, 400-W high pressure sodium lamps. All the plants were grown using a recirculating nutrient film technique, and transpired humidity was condensed and returned to the hydroponic systems. Crops tested included wheat, soybean, potato, lettuce, tomato, rice and radish. This allowed validation of basic protocols developed by university researchers but on a larger scale, and inside a tightly closed atmosphere. The closed atmosphere allowed tracking of volatile organic compounds produced in the system, including ethylene gas, which was chemically scrubbed for some tests. Subsequent testing using standard growth chambers expanded to include LEDs as a light source, and a demonstration of a roof-top solar collection system with optical fibers delivering the light to a chamber inside the building. A series of plant growth tests was also carried out in NASA’s Habitat Demonstration Unit for planetary surface missions. In this case, the plant growth system was placed on a circular shelf surrounding a lift between the lower lab module and the upper crew quarters module. This took advantage of under-utilized volume for growing food within a human living space. More recent testing has focused on testing and selection of dwarf cultivars to maximize production per unit volume for space missions. Many of these concepts and technologies being studied for space align closely with challenges for terrestrial vertical agriculture.

2015 - https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/20.html

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/background/facts/bps.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11538800

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May 2015

Veg-01 Experiment

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/863.html

Experiment Description

Veg-01 Research Overview

Assess ease of set-up and operation of Veggie hardware and science.

Assess capacity for Veggie hardware and pillows to effectively germinate seeds.

Assess capacity for Veggie hardware and pillows to effectively sustain plant growth and adequate media moisture:

Compare growth in different media combinations

Collect environmental data via data logger (e.g. HOBO)

Record plant development with photographs.

Assess crew handling aspects of Veggie (planting, daily plant checks and reservoir refilling, harvesting, pillow disposal, sanitation) and determine effectiveness of established crew procedures.

Assess crew psychological benefits of plant growth and crew acceptance of Veggie operations (questionnaire).

Analyze microbial status and assess sanitation methods.

Experiment Description

The overall goal of Veg-01 is to demonstrate proof-of concept for the Veggie plant growth chamber and the planting pillows. This research builds upon hardware development via an SBIR grant to ORBITEC for the initial prototype Veggie units with subsequent hardware development for next-generation units. Both ORBITEC and KSC have been involved in plant growth optimization of the Veggie hardware and testing and collaboration have resulted in the development of the pillow planting concept to interface with the Veggie hardware. Through numerous tests the VEG-01 science team has refined the pillow concept and selected growth media and fertilizers, plant species, materials, and protocols for using the pillow concept in Veggie to grow healthy plants that can provide crew with food and recreation. The pillow concept is designed to be low mass, modular, require no additional energy and be very low maintenance. Pillows of different sizes have been designed to accommodate a wide variety of plant types and different types of growing media.