Student Spaceflight Experiments Program
| Founders | Jeff Goldstein, director, NCESSE |
|---|---|
| Established | June 2010 |
| Mission | STEM student outreach |
| Head | Jeff Goldstein |
| Key people | Stacy Hamel, National Program Manager Drew Roman, Technology Manager Harri Vanhala, Science Advisor Tim Livengood, Science Advisor Michael Hulslander, Education Advisor[1] |
| Website | http://ssep.ncesse.org/ |
The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) provides an opportunity for student groups from upper elementary school through university to design and fly microgravity experiments in low Earth orbit (LEO).[2] SSEP is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE, a project of the Tides Center), the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education, and the private space hardware company NanoRacks.[3] SSEP operates under a Space Act Agreement between the sponsoring organizations and NASA, allowing the International Space Station (ISS) to be utilized as a national laboratory.[4]
History
The program was launched in June 2010, by NCESSE in the U.S. and by the Clarke Institute internationally.[3] As of 2015[update], SSEP has sponsored eight missions to LEO – two on board the Space Shuttle, and six to the ISS – with a seventh mission to the ISS announced in April 2014, and expected to fly in the spring of 2015.[5][6]
In the first eight SSEP flight opportunities, 48,900 students in grades 5 through 15 (junior undergraduate in the U.S. higher education system) participated in experiment design and proposal writing. Of 7,922 proposals received, a total of 114 experiments were selected for flight, with one from each community participating in each flight opportunity. As of 15 October 2014[update], 96 of these experiments have been successfully launched.[7] The 18 experiments comprising Mission 6 to the ISS were lost when the Cygnus CRS Orb-3 vehicle exploded shortly after launch on 28 October 2014.[8]
Key dates
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Jun 1, 2010 | Program start |
| May 16, 2011 | STS-134 launch (Endeavour) |
| Jul 8, 2011 | STS-135 launch (Atlantis) |
| May 22, 2012 | M1 launch (SpaceX-D1) |
| Oct 7, 2012 | M2 launch (Space X-1) |
| Sep 18, 2013 | M3a launch (Orb-D1) |
| Jan 9, 2014 | M3b/M4 launch (Orb-1) |
| Jul 13, 2014 | M5 launch (Orb-2) |
| Oct 28, 2014 | M6 launch (Cygnus CRS Orb-3 failure) |
| Jan 10, 2015 | M6 launch (SpaceX-5) |
| Jun 28, 2015 | M7 launch (SpaceX CRS-7 failure) |
| Apr 8, 2016 | M7 launch (SpaceX-8) |
| Jul 18, 2016 | M8 launch (SpaceX-9) |
| Feb 19, 2017 | M9 launch (SpaceX-10) |
| Jun 3, 2017 | M10 launch (SpaceX-11) |
| Aug 14, 2017 | M11 launch (SpaceX-12) |
| Jun 9, 2018 | M12 launch (planned) |
Process
The competition to select student projects for flight is designed to resemble a standard research proposal process. Interested groups must submit proposals in response to announced criteria; these proposals are then peer-reviewed against the criteria in a two-stage selection process, with the vast majority of proposals rejected.[9]
Each selected experiment is provided with one mini-laboratory, which is flown on the ISS and then returned to Earth for analysis.[6] Experiments selected for flight have included research into crystal growth, composting, cell division, seed germination, and calcium metabolism.[10][11][12] The cost of each experiment is on the order of US$21,000, which must be raised by the community developing the experiment.[13]
Students have an opportunity to share their research at a national conference sponsored by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, NCESSE, and the Clarke Institute.[3] Students participating in the program have also been given the chance to participate in a videoconference with space station astronauts.[14]
References
- ^ "Key Individuals". ssep.ncesse.org. National Center for Earth and Space Science Education.
- ^ "Student Spaceflight Experiments Program". ncesse.org. National Center for Earth and Space Science Education. October 30, 2012.
- ^ a b c Gaskill, Melissa (August 6, 2014). "Student Scientists Present Unexpected Results from Space Station Research". Space Station: Research & Technology. NASA.
- ^ "Student Spaceflight Experiments Program – Mission 6 to the International Space Station". spaceref.com. SpaceRef Interactive Inc. October 30, 2013.
- ^ "SSEP in the News". Student Spaceflight Experiments Program Community Network Hubsite. National Center for Earth and Space Science Education.
- ^ a b Goldstein, Jeff (April 21, 2014). "New Flight Opportunity for School Districts: Announcing Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) Mission 7 to the International Space Station for 2014-15 Academic Year". ncesse.org. National Center for Earth and Space Science Education. Cite error: The named reference "mission7" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ "Experiments Selected for Flight". Student Spaceflight Experiments Program Community Network Hubsite. National Center for Earth and Space Science Education.
- ^ Bever, Lindsey (October 29, 2014). "Students lost science experiments in Antares explosion". The Washington Post. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
- ^ "The Flight Experiment Design Competition". ncesse.org. National Center for Earth and Space Science Education.
- ^ "Selected Experiments on SSEP Mission 4 to ISS". Student Spaceflight Experiments Program Community Network Hubsite. National Center for Earth and Space Science Education.
- ^ "Selected Experiments on SSEP Mission 5 to ISS". Student Spaceflight Experiments Program Community Network Hubsite. National Center for Earth and Space Science Education.
- ^ "Selected Experiments on SSEP Mission 6 to ISS". Student Spaceflight Experiments Program Community Network Hubsite. National Center for Earth and Space Science Education.
- ^ Bass, Dale (January 28, 2014). "Kamloops students set for space trip". Kamloops This Week. Aberdeen Publishing.
- ^ Grove, Tim (April 26, 2013). "An Out-of-This-World Program". nasm.si.edu. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.