Social, Cultural and Educational Legacies - ER - NASA

and integrated the flight hardware,coordinated the project with NASA,and assisted the scientific team.More than 3 years after theChallenger accident, Chix in Spacesuccessfully reached orbit aboardSpace Shuttle Discovery on missionSTS-29 (1989). The results of theexperiment were so significant thatthe project received worldwideinterest from gravitational andspace biologists, and it establisheda strong reputation for Techshot, Inc.as an innovative developer ofnew technologies.Spaceflight Science andthe ClassroomCan students learn from Space Shuttlescience? You bet they can. To prove thispoint, life sciences researchers tooktheir space research to the classroom.Bone ExperimentSTS-58 (1993), a mission dedicatedto life science research, had anexperiment to evaluate the role ofmicrogravity on calcium-essentialelement for health. With the assistanceof Lead Scientist Dr. Emily Holton,three sixth-grade classes from theSan Francisco Bay Area in Californiaconducted parallel experiments toHolton’s spaceflight experiment.Research staff members traveled to theschools 10 days prior to the launchdate. They discussed the process ofdeveloping the experiment andassembling the flight hardware andreviewed what was needed to includethe experiment on the shuttle flight.The students conducted experiments oncucumber, lettuce, and soybean plantsJapanese Astronaut Mamoru Mohri talks to Japanese students from the aft flight deck of theSpace Shuttle Endeavour during the STS-47 (1992) Spacelab-J mission.using hydroponics—the growing ofplants in nutrient solutions with orwithout an inert medium to providemechanical support. Half the plantswere fed a nutritionally complete foodsolution while the other half wasfed a solution deficient in calcium.During the 2 weeks of the mission,students measured each plant’sheight and growth pattern and thenrecorded the data. Several of thestudents traveled to Edwards AirForce Base, California, to witnessthe landing of STS-58. The studentsanalyzed their data and recordedtheir conclusions. The classes thenvisited NASA Ames Research Center,where they toured the life sciencelabs and participated in a debriefingof their experiment with researchersand Astronaut Rhea Seddon.Fruit Flies—How Does TheirImmune System Change in Space?Fruit flies have long been used forresearch by scientists worldwidebecause their genome has beencompletely mapped, their short lifecycle enables multiple generations tobe studied in a short amount of time,and they have many analogousprocesses to humans. The fruit flyexperiment flew on STS-121 (2006).Its goal was to characterize theeffects of space travel (includingweightlessness and radiation exposure)on fruit flies’ immune systems.Middle school students (grades 5-8)were directed to a Web site to followthis experiment. The Web site providedinformation about current NASA spacebiology research, the scientific method,fruit flies, and the immune system.Social, Cultural, and Educational Legacies479