Student Spaceflight Experiments Program
Thomas Edison EnergySmart Charter School hosted the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program’s (SSEP) Mission 7 Odyssey Space Program. This Program offered a unique opportunity for students to design innovative experiments that were executed during spaceflight by NASA astronauts. As one of two schools in New Jersey participating in the Program, TEECS actively engaged with the program throughout the 2014-2015 school year. Working in small groups, students enthusiastically embraced participation in the program and developed 42 distinct experiment proposals. During a school-wide science fair at the Garden State Exhibition Center, in the presence of many distinguished guests and keynote speaker, former astronaut Dr. Gregory Thomas Linteris, three winning projects were selected for Washington DC. One of the three projects was chosen to be executed in space on the International Space Station (ISS). As part of the program, students also participated in the Mission Patch Competition for SSEP Mission 7. All students from grades Kindergarten to 9th participated in the contest to design a patch for Mission 7 SSEP. The experiment, Evaporation Investigation, was sent to the ISS through the rocket CRS-7 Dragon. After the initial loss of the rocket, students redesigned the project to send it again in the following year’s flight. Students compared the results of their investigation both in ground and in microgravity and presented their findings at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. The program was conducted by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in partnership with Nano Racks, LLC. It is an on-orbit educational research opportunity enabled through Nano Racks, LLC, working in partnership with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the space station as a National Laboratory. It was an exciting and challenging journey for all students at TEECS. SpaceX CRS-8, also known as SpX-8, was a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the ISS. It was the 23rd flight of a Falcon 9 rocket, the 10th flight of a Dragon cargo spacecraft and the 8th operational mission contracted to SpaceX by NASA under the Commercial Resupply Services program. The project went up in SpaceX Falcon 9 CRS-8 out of Cape Canaveral, FL and came back to earth May 11, 2018.
