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Educational Activities in Space

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Educational Activities in Space

The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship (at right) and a pair of the International Space Station's main solar arrays foreshadow a trek into an orbital sunset.
The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship (at right) and a pair of the International Space Station's main solar arrays foreshadow a trek into an orbital sunset.
Credits: NASA

Science in Space: September 2024

As students of all ages returned to school this month, crew members on the International Space Station continue to conduct a variety of educational programs and activities that support learning on the ground. These efforts are part of a wider commitment at NASA to engage, inspire, and attract future generations of explorers and to build a diverse future workforce equipped with skills in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

The carry-on suitcase-sized, cube-shaped robot, with blue and black sides and a white middle, moves up and across the image from right to left. Behind it is a round white station hatch and, to either side of it, walls covered with cords, equipment, and rolls of tape.
An Astrobee robot moves through the space station for the Robo-Pro Challenge.
NASA

One current activity is Robo-Pro Challenge 5, an educational program hosted by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in cooperation with NASA. For the challenge, students create software programs to control NASA’s Astrobee and JAXA’s Internal Ball Camera, using image processing to move the free-flying robots through a series of coordinates to a target point. The challenge helps support computing and coding curricula, and the hands-on experience inspires the study of STEM subjects.

Analyzing DNA in space

Genes in Space is a national contest for students in grades 7 through 12 to design DNA analysis experiments for the space station. It is sponsored by the ISS National Lab and New England Biolabs in collaboration with Boeing and miniPCR bio. There have been more than a dozen contests to date, many producing significant results.

Genes in Space-5 provided proof of concept of simultaneously amplifying multiple DNA sequences in space, expanding the possibilities for in-flight research and health monitoring.

Genes in Space-6 used CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing for the first time in space, using the technique to generate breaks in the DNA of a common yeast, direct a method to repair the breaks, and sequence the patched-up DNA to determine whether its original order was restored.

Kocalar is wearing a green fleece jacket and a black face mask, with her hair pulled back in a ponytail. She is facing the camera and holding a sleeve of clear plastic sample tubes. To her right is a device with a view screen and to her left a chair with a white lab coat draped over it. Behind her is a lab counter and shelves filled with a variety of laboratory equipment.
Selin Kocalar, the student who designed the experiment on which Genes in Space-9 is based, prepares her samples for launch.
Genes in Space

Genes in Space-9 validated technology used to synthesize proteins without needing living cells. This technique could produce proteins for research, vaccines, and development of diagnostic tests for environmental contaminants and infectious agents. Ultimately, such synthesis also could enable portable, low-cost devices for health monitoring, detection of environmental hazards on Earth and in space, and other applications.

Sending code to space

Pesquet is wearing khaki pants and a black polo shirt with an ESA emblem on the chest and a French flag on the sleeve. He is floating horizontally in the space station, facing the camera, and pointing with his left hand at the two computers, small silver cubes with green LED screens and multiple knobs on the front.
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet poses with the AstroPi Raspberry Pi computers.
NASA

In addition to the Robo-Pro challenge, several other programs involve student coding. AstroPi, a program from ESA (European Space Agency), uses special computers, one equipped with an infrared camera and the other with a standard visible spectrum camera. European students write programs for the computers that address specific challenges such as measurement and calibration and image processing. One project successfully identified and computed the horizontal wavelengths of atmospheric gravity waves in clouds.

Dyson, wearing a long-sleeved red shirt and khaki pants, is touching an Astrobee floating just above her left shoulder with her right hand and holding a microphone in her left hand. The robot has a blue panel on each side, black panels inside those, and a white and silver center with two camera lenses and multiple buttons on the front of it.
NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson performs a Zero Robotics demonstration with an Astrobee.
NASA

Zero Robotics also is a competition where students write software to control one of the Astrobees, co-led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Innovation Learning Center, and other collaborators. Finalists have their code downloaded to the Astrobee platform and can observe its performance in space.

Students have good “HUNCHes”

Hopkins is wearing a black t-shirt and khaki pants with a tablet attached to the thigh by Velcro. He is using his right hand to pull a strip of wide orange tape from a round dispenser attached to the wall. A roll of duct tape is stuck to a blue handrail just below his hand.
NASA Astronaut Mike Hopkins uses the HUNCH Tape Dispenser, which can be operated with one hand.
NASA

High school students United with NASA to Create Hardware, or HUNCH, is a learning program where high school students design and fabricate real-world products for NASA. More than 2,500 students have participated to date, flying some 3,000 products to space, including a tape dispenser that can be operated with one hand, footpads, sleeping pad liners, and orange blackberry croissants and other food products.

Very long-distance calls

Williams, wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt, is facing the camera, and holding in her right hand a microphone attached by a large cord to a radio unit mounted on the wall. Her hair is floating around her head and the wall behind her is covered with various stickers.
NASA astronaut Suni Williams talks to students from Banda Aceh, Indonesia, during an ISS Ham Radio session.
NASA

Through ISS Ham Radio, a collaboration with Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, students use ham radio to ask astronauts questions about life in space, career opportunities, and other space-related topics. Participating teachers report that the program has a significant and positive impact on students, increasing interest in all STEM areas. The experiences also help students make real-world connections among disciplines, learn problem-solving, and hone communication skills. To date, more than 100 crew members have communicated with over 1 million students from 49 U.S. states, 63 countries, and every continent.

Out-of-this-world videos

Developed through NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement, STEMonstrations are short educational videos demonstrating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics topics in microgravity for grades K through 12. The videos are available online and every STEMonstration includes materials teachers can use to explore the topics in their classrooms. Six videos released in the past 12 months have been viewed 98,705 times to date across various social media platforms. The program provides students with a connection to NASA and scientific work conducted on the space station, inspiring the next generation of explorers and contributing to a diverse future workforce.

Melissa Gaskill
International Space Station Research Communications Team
NASA’s Johnson Space Center

Search this database of scientific experiments to learn more about those mentioned in this article.

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