STUDENT TEAM AMONG NASA STEM CHALLENGE WINNERS
A team of five Altona Middle School seventh graders was one of 60 teams chosen to build a space exploration experiment they designed for a NASA STEM competition.
The students, who were part of a design elective class last semester, are spending this semester working with a mentor and teacher Stephanie Basile to learn skills and build the project. Once complete, their experiment will be launched in the summer by NASA.
“The whole point of it is it gives students a chance to learn what it is like to be an engineer,” student Dresdyn Fetter said.
The Techrise Student Challenge is designed to give middle and high school students an opportunity to design and test solutions for space exploration and the study of Earth while getting hands-on insight into the payload design and flight test process. The challenge is managed by NASA’S Flight Opportunities program.
This year’s challenge was to design a science or technology experiment that could be tested on either a Nasa-sponsored high-altitude balloon flight or a rocket-powered lander. The Altona students’ experiment, titled Full Model Moon Mission, will be tested on a rocket-powered lander operated by Astrobotic Technology Inc. in Pittsburgh.
Experiments tested on the lander will fly for about two minutes at an altitude of 80 feet over Astrobotic’s Lunar Surface Proving Ground, a test field designed to simulate the Moon’s surface that’s located in Mojave, California. During flight, payloads will be able to collect information on the features of the surface and discover hidden objects.
“It’s real-world,” Basile said. “It’s amazing to see middle schoolers build these kind of things and learn to work as a team.”
Altona’s team — Dresdyn, Liam Calkins, Jack O’toole, Vivienne Ottele and Caitlin Townsend — received $1,500 to buy supplies, a 3D-printed flight box and technical support from a mentor through Future Engineers.
Their project uses a thermal camera, lidar sensor, dash camera and light spectrum analyzer to map the simulated lunar surface.
“They each have different uses,” Dresdyn said. “We can compare the data to get a better image.”
Caitlin said she thought their project was chosen because it seeks to solve the problem of unreliable equipment on lunar expeditions and has a strong design.
“Ours was challenging enough yet achievable,” she said.
To build the project, they’re first learning skills that include soldering and Python coding.
“We’re learning about all the soldering and planning it out,” Jack said. “We’re all eager to work with technology.”
Vivienne added that the skills they’re learning are likely to prove useful in the future.
“It’s cool that we can all this stuff,” she said.