STEM team pleased with space experiment success
Jan. 10—Ideas from teachers and lots of research helped a five-student team from UTPB STEM Academy develop an experiment that will head to the International Space Station in the summer of 2023 as part of Mission 17 of the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program.
SSEP is an international program that engages students in designing experiments that will be carried out in microgravity by astronauts on the ISS. This will be the fourth experiment from ECISD flown to the ISS as part of the SSEP program.
The winning team, coached by Karey Grametbaur, created an experiment to test whether a specific fungus, Pestalotiopsis microspora, would survive and reproduce in space with the goal of the fungus breaking down waste plastic into biodegradable components. The biodegradable byproduct of this experiment could then be used by astronauts to grow plants in, a news release said.
Georgi Shoumaroff, a 16-year-old junior, said an example of Grametbaur's suggestions was a bacteria that could eat waste.
"We looked up plastic-eating plants to get more specifics and it was the first one that came up so that's how we found out about it at first ...," Shoumaroff said.
Then they researched it and they thought it was really cool that it could eat plastic.
"While we were researching, we found the current ... method that NASA uses to get rid of their plastic. It's really expensive because they have to fly something up there and then they have to shoot it back down and they have to collect it. It's a really expensive, lengthy process," 16-year-old sophomore Bryan Nash said.
He added that the fungus could be used to eat plastic in space or on Earth, assuming it grows in space.
"We're just interested in how would it grow differently in a zero gravity environment ...," Nash said.
Kagan Holder, a 16-year-old sophomore, said they had to make sure the biosafety level was low enough that it wouldn't harm anybody.
Nash said the end product could be used as fertilizer.
"There's a few others that we found where it can be potentially be edible, but those ones ... need light to grow and the Pestalotiopsis microspora doesn't actually need light to grow, so we felt that it would be a better fit than another fungus," Nash said.
Shoumaroff said they have been working on the experiment since October.
Holder said he thinks most of them were surprised when they learned their experiment would go to space. The team is also excited.
"We've never done something this big, or at least most of us haven't ...," Holder said.
Grametbaur said their UTPB mentors are Lab Director Joanna Hernandez and Lecturer in the Department of Biology Paula Gutierrez.
"They have been truly instrumental in answering questions for us, helping us research, making sure that we're taking care of the the health end of it, the biology end of it ... keeping in mind the safety procedures that we need to follow and really just being there for us. We've met with them multiple times," Grametbaur said.
The experiment is tentatively set to go to space in June. It is currently undergoing the optimization process.
"The one variable that we have is the microgravity that's in space and so we're performing the exact same experiment on Earth, here in the UTPB lab, that will be performed in space so that we can get data that compares the two and decides if microgravity as a variable makes a difference in the growth of it," Grametbaur said.
When they first researched the bacteria, they considered various types.
"At first, the boys looked at one that could actually not only eat plastic, but also be eaten as a food source because we thought that was kind of cool. But that particular bacteria didn't work for what we needed. ... Joanna and Paula were helping us to determine what would be the safest that we could still use here on Earth that wouldn't contaminate anyone, or make anyone sick, because there are levels of bacteria that you do not want to introduce into the general public," Grametbaur said.
Since they just recently partnered with Ector County ISD, this is the first year STEM has been eligible to be considered to have an experiment sent to space.
"The Innovation Department has been just amazing to work with. We've done several projects with them and this is one of them. They have just welcomed us with open arms. We've enjoyed getting to do the various things that they've introduced us," she added.
The experiment likely won't be part of the annual science and engineering fair at UTPB, but it could be part of a research exhibit that includes graduate-level work.
Grametbaur said she handpicked the students for the experiment.
"I am always super impressed with them. They always go above and beyond. They're all my students and I've had them multiple years. They are just an impressive group. They work super hard and this is where they're going to be in the next couple of years. They're going to be competing with graduate-level students in everything that they do. They're going to be very successful and so this is one step to the stepping stone of what they're going to be in the greatness of their lives. They're just amazing, so I'm excited to work with them," Grametbaur said.
The experiment will spend four to six weeks aboard the ISS where astronauts will follow instructions provided by the student team to carry out the experiment. The experiment will then be returned to Earth and the students will compare the results between the sample that went to space with an identical sample that stayed on Earth, the release said.
Two other teams from ECISD were finalists in the flight experiment competition:
George H.W. Bush New Tech Odessa (coached by teachers Lornalyn De Leon and Maria Lopez): Eva Brower (10th grade); Nathalaine Denise De Leon (11th grade); Mikail Karais (10th grade); Adrian Rodriguez (10th grade); and Beverly Lanae Vanessa Woods (11th grade).
Hays STEAM Academy (coached by teacher Erika Pocaterra): Horacio Hernandez Frias (5th grade); Cristian Eduardo Lopez (5th grade); Caleb Daniel Orozco (5th grade); Harper Pierce-DeShazo (5th grade).
Another exciting component of SSEP Mission 17 is the Mission Patch Art and Design Competition, which will kick off later this month. This competition carries on the tradition of the mission patch that has been part of spaceflight since the 1960s. Students in grades K-12 will have the opportunity to design a 3.5 by 3.5-inch piece of art commemorating ECISD's SSEP Mission 17 experience, and one winning patch from grades K-5 and one patch from grades 6-12 will be selected by ECISD staff to accompany the STEM Academy team's experiment to the ISS. The two winning mission patches will spend four to six weeks on the ISS and then be returned to the students embossed as "flown in space."
ECISD thanks HEB, Chevron, the Education Foundation of Odessa, and Kepler Aerospace, whose support makes ECISD's participation in SSEP possible, a news release said.
The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in the U.S. and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education internationally. It is enabled through a strategic partnership with Nanoracks, LLC, which is working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory.
