The summer project of six hardworking Sault Area Public School students known to the Higher Orbits community as SPACE SHELL 6 might just make it to stars thanks to the local promotion of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) by Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District (EUPISD), Chippewa County Economic Development Corporation (CCEDC), and Lake Superior State University (LSSU).
The Higher Orbits Go For Launch program promotes student involvement in STEM by sending its winning project into the great beyond.
Freshmen Cierra Aikens, Zahraa Mahmud, Taylor Meilstrup, Evelyn Weber, along with seventh-graders Siri Olson and Claire Parks competed in the three-day event at LSSU against schools across the Great Lakes state.
Things are looking up so far.
SPACE SHELL 6 won over judges in the Upper Peninsula, but must wait for one more Michigan team to compete before being dubbed this year's best.
Win or lose, the experience was everything the team had hoped for and so much more.
"If we write that we sent something to space for NASA on our resumes, I am pretty sure it would help us get future jobs,” Meilstrup said.
Others were a little star-struck.
“We thought it would be a really great opportunity to meet a person who went to space,” Mahmud said about meeting NASA Astronaut Don Thomas.
Thomas positively influenced SPACE SHELL 6 team members by sharing his story of determination. Thomas had been not selected for employment by NASA until January of 1990. At which time, he was hired to serve in the safety, operations development, and payload branches of the astronaut office.
“I learned that Thomas tried really hard to get into NASA, but got rejected three times,” Parks said. “Each time they told him he didn’t meet specific requirements. Eventually, they let him in. He was the first astronaut to bring pizza into space.”
While the girls love a cheesy pepperoni dish, pizza is not what they plan on launching into space.
SPACE SHELL 6 used cellular respiration yeast (C.R.Y.) in the place of real animal cells to observe the growth of Bermuda grass seeds in a 8x4x4 inch box.
According to the team’s ‘Cells in Space’ report, Bermuda grass will be given 8.28 mL of water with a syringe through the soil for 3.5 days. Eight vials of water will be spread out around the pot with different amounts of yeast cells. A U.V light will mimic actual sunlight at 45 minute cycles.
“We hypothesize that if we measure the growth of cellular respiration yeast in space compared to one on Earth then the yeast in space will grow, but not as much as the one on Earth because of more radiation and less light. We will have different measurements of the C.R.Y cells in vials to examine if they cultivate and survive under the stress of radiation, zero gravity, and the light difference. A control will be on Earth to examine the growth under the different conditions. We will also measure the ratio of oxygen to growth of yeast to both the cells on Earth and in space. A possibility to consider is that much more vegetation is needed to support life in space than on Earth. Things that could go wrong include: if the U.V light malfunctions, if the dirt comes out of the pot, radiation from the ISS, and if the grass does not grow because of the lack of root space from the pot.”
Olson explained the importance of learning whether or not Bermuda grass can survive and grow in space.
“We measured the ratio of plant growth on earth to the plant growth in space,” she explained. “If we were going to colonize, we would need to know how much plant life is needed.”
Aikens went on to note: “No animals were harmed in the making of this science experiment.”
The girls agreed that animals, like the Soviet Union’s dog Laika, should never be victims of human science exploration and research.
The animal lovers have more than that in common. The girls are all swimmers, sharing dreams of pursuing STEM related professions.
“I love space,” said Parks. “It’s just cool that people are going up there and discovering things. I want to be an engineer for NASA and develop technology.”
“I am going to be an anesthesiologist,” Mahmud added.
The team created mission patches to represent the unity and determination of SPACE SHELL 6, inspired after watching “Hidden Figures” during the Higher Orbits camp.
“Hidden Figures” highlights the careers of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) data processors Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson. The women were part of the segregated West Area Computers division that hired African American women during the space race era.
“It was about all of them working toward their goals,” said Aikens. “We designed our patch as a sea shell with the number ‘6‘ because there are six of us. The shell represents swimming.”
If the all-girls SPACE SHELL 6 team wins, their mission patches will be launched into space and returned back to them. They will become tangible memories of a LSSU space camp held in the summer of 2022.
EUP STEM Regional Director Kevin St. Onge was proud of the team, recognizing that some might choose other careers and leave aerospace engineering behind all together.
"But they can utilize the skills learned from this contest to go into any tech field,” he said. "It is an engaging program that gives students insight into an industry that is growing, one they probably don’t have a lot of experience with. From the standpoint of middle school and high school students who are interested, Higher Orbits is a phenomenal chance to do just that.”
Space related opportunities are already growing in the EUP.
CCEDC's Chippewa Homestead Antenna and Mission Program (CHAMP) was selected by the Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers Association's (MAMA) last year to name Kincheloe of Chippewa County its command center.
MAMA's Michigan Launch Initiative (MLI) is partnership of public and private partners working to make Michigan mid-America’s state for “premier commercial space ecosystem.”
According to MLI, the state is expected to see hundreds of new jobs in mechanics, engineering, science, and analytics to get satellites off the ground into higher orbits.
CCEDC President Chris Olson, father of SPACE SHELL 6's Siri Olson, hopes the Higher Orbits program grows to attract even more EUP students to the field.
“The whole goal is to get kids involved in STEM and space because when we have a command center here, we will need to employ people interested in space,” said Olson. “We want them to know they will have a career in Kincheloe. We could be working with a number of communication satellites.”
Soo Leader will be following SPACE SHELL 6 in its journey to possible space launch.
