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Montana State Univ. / NASA
CubeSats like the one shown in this artist's conception, measuring 4 inches (10 centimeters) on each side, are coming within reach of student experimenters and DIY enthusiasts.
Wanna do some space science? You no longer have to be a professional researcher, or even a grown-up, to get your experiment into orbit. A new program called DreamUp is offering slots on the International Space Station's experimental racks to school groups for as little as $15,500 a pop, and you can use credit-card reward points to help cover the cost.
"We are committed to lowering the barriers for entry to space research," Jeffrey Manber, managing director of NanoRacks, said in a news release announcing the program. "This is a double win. This first-of-its-kind student experiment donation platform will help create a world-class experience for students."
NanoRacks, which has already helped put iPhones and the makings for Scotch whisky into space, is partnering up with the Conrad Foundation on the DreamUp program.
"Some experiments can't be done on Earth because we can't 'turn off' gravity," said Nancy Conrad, the foundation's chairman and the widow of Apollo astronaut Pete Conrad. "DreamUp, powered by our partner NanoRacks, is the ultimate 'plug and play,' helping our next great innovators participate in a scientific research opportunity like no other."
Organizers say American Express Membership Rewards points can be put toward the cost of an experiment, at the rate of $10 for every 1,000 points redeemed. The DreamUp program is open to junior-high students, high-schoolers and college undergraduates from accredited U.S. schools.
Teacher, I shrunk the experiment
The concept follows up on a series of student experiments that have already flown up to the station on NanoRacks' platforms. One of the key players in the project will be Werner Vavken, director of Valley Christian Schools' Applied Math, Science and Engineering Institute in San Jose, Calif. Vavken and his students have built experiments for the space station and taught several other schools to do likewise.
The first lesson that Vavken shares with other schools is that doing space science isn't as hard as it sounds. "I explain this to them, and they think I'm from outer space," he told me. "But they really can do it. The sky is no longer the limit."
Werner Vavken / Valley Christian Schools
Valley Christian High School's principal, Mark Lodewyk (back row with tie), Vice Principal Jennifer Griffin and projector mentor George Sousa (in the blue shirt) witness the packing of one of two NanoLabs being readied for shipping to the International Space Station. The students are Brian Hu and Evan Borras.
NanoRacks / Kentucky Space / Valley Christian Schools
A NanoLab container holds a plant growth experiment as well as electronic gear.
The key trick is to shrink the experiment: Vavken said the experiments that he and his students build have to fit within a 2-by-2-by-4-inch space (5 by 5 by 10 centimeters). That sounds incredibly challenging, but it can be done. One of the schools he worked with wanted to design an experiment to mix concrete in microgravity — a task that some thought would cost millions of dollars. Suffice it to say that the eight-student team from Faith Christian Academy in Coalinga, Calif., found a cheaper way.
"They conjured up a way to mix concrete in space, in 16 cubic inches, and they didn't have a $4 million budget," Vavken said. The experiment is due to return to Earth next month aboard a Russian Soyuz craft, and the students will then analyze how zero-gravity concrete differs from the Earth-made equivalent on the molecular level.
Other high-school experiments have been aimed at monitoring plant growth, bacterial growth and food spoilage in microgravity.
"The opportunity for students to do small experiments on the ISS is a powerful motivator in science, technology, engineering and math," Julie Robinson, NASA's chief scientist for the International Space Station, said in this week's news release. "DreamUp will provide the opportunity for top students of all socio-economic levels to fly their experiments to the space station, and the NanoRacks system allows them to be completed without any impact to other research activities."
The revolution continues
NanoRacks' standardized research platforms, known as NanoLabs, are shipped up to the space station on cargo flights. NASA astronauts plug them into the station's power and communication system, and then just let them run for 30 days. The students get the opportunity to interact with the astronauts and check in with their experiment.
"It's really pretty revolutionary for teenagers to conjure this up, get it built and tested, and approved by NanoRacks," Vavken said.
Next year could be even more revolutionary. "We are teaching the kids how to design and launch a satellite from the International Space Station," Vavken said. The CubeSat device, measuring 4 inches (10 centimeters) on each side, could be sent into orbit as early as next February from Japan's Kibo laboratory, he said.
Vavken acknowledged that the $15,500 cost was "a little pricey," but he said the project could be a game-changer for teens who are interested in math, science and engineering. He recalled the case of one high-schooler who was on the team for a space experiment he helped organize. "She graduated this past year ... and got a four-year, full-ride scholarship to MIT," he said. "Now, I think that's a good payback for a kid in an after-school program."
For more information about the DreamUp program, including a registration form, click on over to the Conrad Foundation website.
But wait ... there's more
Meanwhile, aerospace experts and their corporate partners have just set up a Kickstarter campaign for a citizen-space-science project called ArduSat. They're soliciting donations to cover the anticipated $35,000 cost of building a CubeSat that will contain more than two dozen sensors for orbital observations. "As soon as the funding goal is met, we can move ahead with applications for free launches through various NASA or ESA ride-along programs," the project leaders say.
Organizers of the ArduSat project state their case for Kickstarter backing.
Organizers of the campaign say that ArduSat will be the "first open platform allowing the general public to design and run their own space-based applications, games and experiments, steer the onboard cameras to take pictures on demand, and even broadcast personalized messages back to Earth." If the project gets off the ground, Kickstarter supporters will get the first turns at taking the controls, at a discounted price.
Discover Magazine has partnered with ArduSat to run the Discover Space Challenge, which is soliciting ideas for innovative experiments, games or applications to run on the nanosatellite. The winning team members will be awarded a Team Development Kit that could turn their idea into a reality.
Interested? For more information, check out Phil Plait's spiel on the Bad Astronomy blog, plus Evan Ackerman's report on the DVICE blog.
More about nanosatellites:
- Kinect-controlled satellites heading to space
- Beware, terrorists: Mini satellites can find you
- NASA backs a contest for nanosatellites
- CubeSats: Tiny spacecraft, huge payoffs
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
I love the idea and affordability ....
But with this new public and private company enthusiasm to send there creations into Earths orbit ....
I think about a computer generated image I saw of Earth with its massive amounts of orbiting space junk ....
Someone needs to create a space junk eater to begin the clean up process of orbiting space junk ....
With the cost of around $15,500 per experiment ....
If you divide that by a class of 30 or so kids then it's not that much at all per student ....
This new venture should go over really well with educational entities of all typed ....
Thanks for the article Alan Boyle ....
I meant of all types , in my last sentence above ....
You'll have to excuse me , it was a long day ....
Have fun ....
This is a great article. The barriers to entry are getting lower every day. PhotosToSpace has been sending photos to space for a reasonable price too. It is a wonderful entry into the world of space science for students on even smaller budgets.
Yes..more sub size space junk...WHY DON'T YOU JUST BUILD A LARGE SATELLITE THAT DOES ALL THAT ! Call up the the EUROS.
Hey Alan!
Do you know if anyone at MSNBC is working on an update regarding the James Webb Telescope? I heard there is significant process being made in the last week!
Guys, orbital debris need not be an issue, if you limit these devices to orbital altitudes that can't be maintained for more than, say, a year without re-boost.
Mo-Pho, you can't build one large satellite for all users. That's why there's more than 'one satellite' orbiting Earth right now. For one, how do you accommodate new users, after you launch the 'Everybody Satellite(tm)?'
What about a REALLY big satellite?
(shrug) Doesn't change what I said. What if you want to launch your experiment, when 'THE satellite' is already up there?
And don't talk to me about somehow having yours go rendezvous and dock with it. If you can do that, you can do the much easier job of a de-orbit burn when you're done.
A napkin on the side of the road; old cigarettes crowded around a tree; piled up trashcans—do these things sound familiar? Trash build-up is a worldwide problem. It affects people, animals, bodies of water, and the air we breathe.
Not all parts of the world are equally responsible for this situation. Americans consume more than most people in the world, and therefore create a lot more waste. According to a 2008 New York Times opinion piece by geographer and author Jared Diamond, each individual American consumes the same amount of stuff as 32 Kenyans combined.
"The average rates at which people consume resources like oil and metals, and produce wastes like plastics and greenhouse gases, are about 32 times higher in North America, Western Europe, Japan and Australia than they are in the developing world," wrote Diamond.
Right now, he explained, fewer than one in six people on the planet live in one of these high-consuming, developed countries. But what if the rest of the world caught up to us—what if every person on earth used resources and produced trash like an American does already? It's a scary thought.
Ah yes, the comfortable Western world we live in as described. A biodegradable napkin under a tree, a couple of cigarette butts which will soon be buried under the dirt, and a trash can that our highly developed waste management services will be arriving to soon to clear up.
Meanwhile in the developing third-world we frequently have poor sewer management leading to a ubiquity of disease, toxic and dangerous waste haphazardly disposed with no regard for the environment or health, and lastly little to no regulation on dumping and releasing harmful chemicals into the air and water.
All these numbers are intended to do is acquire shock-value, while the truth is that in the age of development we can't be expected to stall our consumption simply because others are consuming less. Sure, the average rate of producing waste may be higher - but those outliers near the top of the list which would include industry typically pollute and mishandle (per our Western standards) hazardous materials in ways which would be simply unfathomable for us. Meanwhile, the majority of waste we produce is relatively trivial - simply requiring time to degrade when handled properly.
The scary thought isn't what if every person used resources like an American does, it's how the waste will be managed by governments who have it as one of the last priorities on their minds.
18 But the nations became wrathful, and your own wrath came, and the appointed time for the dead to be judged, and to give [their] reward to your slaves the prophets and to the holy ones and to those fearing your name, the small and the great, and to bring to ruin those ruining the earth."
Revelation 11:18 . BRING TO RUIN THOSE RUINING THE EARTH !
god just told me to tell you to shut up
And that has what to do with this...?
So far we have completely polluted the oceans, air, and land with all of our corporate commercial packaging of manufactured goods. Why do we have to also pollute space? Is it really necessary for some high school or college kids to put a meatball sandwich or a can of soda into space!??? What can this possibly have to offer the betterment of the human race? Even if it falls back to Earth within a year. It is nothing but more pollution. We will be seeing garbage falling from the sky everyday! How disgusting is this world going to become before anything gets better? There are no limits to what will be done for money no matter how stupid it might be. This generation is taking greed to a higher level than ever imagined.
Well, at least you made it glaringly obvious you have not a clue in the world on how these processes work and the long-term benefits. Believe it or not, scientific experimentation is how you have many of your first-world amenities today. If you even cared to take the time to read the article, you would see the beginnings of extremely informative and unprecedented research on the effects of microgravity (and conversely, gravity) on concrete and how it can be made in space. Many of the things you take for granted (including concrete) are actually based on scientific processes and reactions, which occur differently in different environments. To see how the concrete is affected in microgravity, combined with prior knowledge we have of how concrete reacts and sets on earth, will give us many insights into the general behavior of particles as a result of gravity - a variable we have previously been unable to isolate in scientific research for long-terms prior to space travel. This is simply one of thousands of possibilities for research, with many others possible that have the potential to spur innovation and the advancement of our society as is always our goal.
I'll have some fries with my burger, please. Sorry you didn't have the opportunity to capitalize on knowledge like some of your counterparts.