Help Boost our Student NASA Experiment to Space!
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We are 10th graders (Saphira Prakash, David Scott, Janell Jimenez, and Jaden Vibberts) at Glendora High School, who are honored to have been chosen for Mission 18 in the NASA Student Spaceflight Experiments Program competition. This program allows students to design and propose real microgravity experiments for low Earth orbit.
Our proposal focuses on studying the survival, growth, and oxygen production of a specifically chosen resilient cyanobacteria strain (Trichormus variabilis) in space in conditions of microgravity, radiation, and extended darkness aboard the International Space Station. If successful, this research could be instrumental in future space travel, oxygen transportation/production, and terraforming other planets. While our initial experiments have been promising thanks to Avrok Biosciences allowing us to use their lab, we were only able to do 2 experiments comparing the growth in light and darkness due to limited funds and resources. It would be greatly appreciated if we could get additional funds from your donations to conduct more experiments before August (when the testing must be complete and mini-labs sent to NASA to prepare for launch). We would like to test different additions to growth media in low light to optimize growth (e.g. addition of fructose and sodium bicarbonate) as well as compare growth with altered factors/amounts of substances/length of time. This would help us to achieve the most promising and successful experiment. We require materials for experiments such as cyanobacteria pellets (around $500 each), growth media, parylene-coated silicone tubes, formalin, commercial lab usage, and many other experiment-related expenses. We appreciate your support for our mission!
Organizer
Saphira Prakash
Organizer
Glendora, CA