Mescalero science project will launch into space

Mescalero science project will launch into space
Julie Carter jcarter@ruidosonews.com
Posted: 10/19/2010 08:52:41 PM MDT

In April 2011, a science project designed by a team of Mescalero middle school students will fly into space on a sounding rocket from Spaceport America through a program created by NASA's Summer of Innovation, Launch and Learn.

The team of Albert Valdez, Maisie Wabaunsee and Destinee Shanta will work directly with NASA engineers and scientists to build their experiments to ready them for space. Instructors for the project are Ashley Ivins and Rosalinda Baeza. The Mescalero experiment was selected as one of 20 from New Mexico schools.

NASA's Summer of Innovation, Launch and Learn, provided a one-week professional development workshop for 138 teachers.

These instructors then went back to their home sites and recruited an average of 24 students to participate in an intensive three-to-four week STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) focused summer camp.

The camp involved five states (New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Arizona and Maine) and 35 school districts of which Mescalero Schools was one.

The Mescalero project is titled "Apache Cultural Items & More in a Microgravity Environ-ment."

The experiment will send seven organic substances (soda, mescal plant, geode crystals turquoise, pollen, sugar and salt) into space to see if any changes in the structure appear from being exposed to microgravity environment.

"Our hypothesis depends on the substances being tested," says the Mission Overview from the experiment.

"We think that the geode crystals, sugar crystals and salt crystals will expand in space. The turquoise and pollen will stay the same. We think that the soda will lose carbonation in space. We think that the mescal plant will go into shock, show stunted growth and droopy leaves."
The space program had its beginnings in New Mexico, the home of Dr. Robert Goddard. The patented design for the liquid fuel rocket was created in Roswell, N.M., by Goddard and the first rocket to reach space flew from White Sands Proving Grounds in 1948.

Launch and Learn teamed up with New Mexico SEMAA (Science, Engineering, Math and Aerospace Academy) to bring the Summer of Innovation into the lives of students.

Through the Launch and Learn Pro-gram, N.M. Space Grant and N.M. SEMAA share the opportunity to launch student experiments into space from Spaceport America in April 2011.

"This selection of this team's project is really is such an honor," said Ivins "And the experiment came totally from the minds of these students. I really wanted them to own it, so I coached them only minimally when it came to the actual design process and experiment ideas."

Destinee Shanta also entered the essay portion of the contest where the selected winner will be allowed to push the button that will launch the rocket from Spaceport America in April.

Although she did not win, her essay entitled "It's Destinee" outlined again the pride of heritage shared by the Mescalero students on the project.

"There have been many ethnicities represented in space," she wrote.

"And someday there will be the first Native American to go to space and it would be cool for a Native American to get to push the button because it would represent the possible future for my people who were the first to be here on this land."

For a list of the schools selected to submit their experiments, go to www.-launchnm.com.