CRS-14 & ExoLab

3, 2, 1, LIFTOFF of SpaceX CRS14 Carrying ExoLab to the ISS!

We are participating in Flight 3 of Magnitude.io’s ExoLab experiment on board the International Space Station. ExoLab is a plant growth study in microGravity and we have one of the Earth Analogs. That means we have exactly the same setup as is on the ISS, except of course, we have gravity.

We held a launch party to see our experiment off to space with live coverage from NASAtv and SpaceX. 

With a successful launch on Monday, April 2, followed by capture with the Candarm and berthing to the ISS on Wednesday, April 4, the ExoLab was unloaded from the Dragon capsule and put in the Express Racks in the Destiny Laboratory on Thursday, April 5.

Monday, April 9, the experiments will be initiated and we will be comparing the growth of the Arabidopsis thaliana plants in microG to those in Earth gravity. We are collaborating with a network of over 80 schools around the world! Through a web portal we can see how each other’s experiments are doing and what is happening on the ISS.

We will also be comparing our Arabidopsis to Brassica rapa plants that we will be growing concurrently with the ExoLab experiment. 

Hot, Hotter, Hottest

By Sci4V Oppy

Day 4 Heat Stress Investigation

We are trying to figure out why the plants on the ISS died. We think it was because they were too hot. That made them shrivel up because they dried out. All the moisture got sucked out of them. Kind of like a drought.

The Control conditions were:

• Temperature: 28.2°C
• Humidity: 19.51%
• CO2: 28 ppm (we think this sensor is not working)
• Light: 1147 LUX

Day 4 Arabidopsis seedlings Control

The seedlings all germinated and have open, green cotyledons, healthy looking hypocotyls and roots.

In the Experimental conditions (Heat Stressed):

• Temperature: 42.8°C
• Humidity: 2.73%
• CO2: 1687 ppm
• Light: 4402 LUX

Day 4 Arabidopsis seedlings Experimental (Heat Stressed)

These seedlings have germinated but the hypocotyls and roots  look like they are drying out. Some of the cotyledons are small and white and others are still in the testa. Even the experimental seedlings cotyledons that are out of the testa have not opened up.

We also noticed that the control hypocotyls are white and the experimentals are clear.

The gel (growth media) in the experimental plates seems to be drying out. It looks thinner, has lots of little white dots and is peeling away from plate. We think the water is evaporating from the gel with the heat. We also noticed that the experimental plates were lighter weight. We massed them and found a 10 gram difference. That is equal to 10 ml of water!

ExoLab Has Arrived!

We’re just about to get underway with the ExoLab experiment! 

This weekend an Antares rocket launched from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. It was carrying the Cygnus spacecraft with more than 7000 pounds of experiments and supplies to the International Space Station.

Watch the launch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5uhDWAR88Y&feature=youtu.be

Along with the payload is our ExoLab experiment! The Cygnus was grappled by Italian astronaut Paulo Nespoli who controlled Canadarm early Tuesday morning and then docked with the ISS. 16 bolts were remotely driven to hard dock the spacecraft to the space station.

Watch the grapple maneuver:

https://youtu.be/swFZkEZuuuI

ExoLab and other payloads in cold storage will have priority on unloading. Once installed and tested by an astronaut, we will be begin our experiment Thursday, November 16th.

It’s not rocket science... oh wait, yes it is!

After a bit of a nail-biter, the S.S. Gene Cernan launched, achieved orbital insertion, deployed its solar arrays and is now on a two day chase of the International Space Station! With ANOTHER range violation, this time a boat “in the box,” Wallops Launch Control moved the launch time to the very last minute of today’s launch window. Mathematics ruled the day as the path to orbit ran exactly on the outside line of the window! 

Our experiment is on its way!

Launch Replay and Post Launch Review: 

OA8 Launch - ExoLab Experiment

 
We are very excited to announce that we will be engaging in a unique opportunity to extend our “Farming Mars” curriculum by participating in a research project on board the International Space Station (ISS)!

Magnitude.io produces a self contained lab for microgravity experiments. These “ExoLabs” have the ability to control and monitor the intensity and wavelength of light, carbon dioxide levels, humidity and temperature. Additionally, they have cameras on board to document the experiments. Our ExoLabs will be Earth Analogs of ExoLabs on the ISS. We will be conducting plant growth experiments and comparing our results with those of other schools in the network as well as those growing on orbit!

Our ExoLabs are due to arrive at school by the end of this week. The space bound experiments will launch on Saturday morning, November 11th, from NASA Wallops Flight Center on Wallops Island, VA at 7:37 am EST. The launch vehicle is an Orbital ATK Antares carrying the Cygnus spacecraft S.S. Gene Cernan (last man on the Moon). The ExoLabs will part of the 7,000 lb payload that includes clothes, supplies, food and other science experiments. It is possible that the spacecraft would be visible, low on the southeastern horizon about two minutes after launch. Look for a bright spot rising and moving from south to east.

The S.S. Gene Cernan will take about two days to catch up to the ISS and the crew aboard the ISS will grapple spacecraft with the CanadArm and berth it with the ISS on Wednesday, November 15. Experiments will commence as soon as the astronauts unload the spacecraft and install the ExoLabs in their racks in the US National Laboratory. There are several early morning opportunities over the next couple of weeks to see an ISS flyover.

Our experiments will run synchronously with the experiments on orbit and we will be able to directly compare data via photos and graphs through a web portal. Each student will have their own account, using their school email and password as login credentials.

We invite you all to watch the launch and berthing, carried live on NASA TV and follow our experiments over the next couple of months.

Ad Astra!
mw

Celebrating Solar Week 2016

We took the week of October 17, 2016 to celebrate and learn about our nearest star - the Sun!

Sunset by MWilkinson

We observed the Sun (safely) with solar telescopes and sketched the features we observed, including sunspots, filaments and prominences.

Alden helps Camilla Corona observer her favorite star.

Sci4 Observing the Sun 

Sci5 Observing the Sun

Sci4 Observing the Sun

We each made a visual representation of something we learned about the Sun.

SST Lab

by Sci5

Fifth graders at Fieldston Lower start their year in science studying hurricanes. As we observed the storms Ian, Karl, Matthew and Nicole, we noticed that the storm seemed to be a lot stronger when they were over warmer water. That got us thinking, there must be a relationship between evaporation and sea surface temperature (SST). So, we designed a lab to find out if evaporation and SST were related.

Read on to see our lab report:

How does SST affect the intensity of a storm?

We thought that the cooler the ocean is, the weaker the storm will be. We also thought that when the ocean is warmer, the storm will get stronger. These ideas came from our observations of Tropical Storm Ian and Tropical Storm Karl. The test our hypothesis, we made an experiment where we tested the humidity, the air temperature and the water temperature in a closed environment. We did this lab because we wanted to learn what makes tropical storms stronger and weaker.

In our lab, we used a beaker with some water in it to represent the ocean and placed a plastic box on top of the beaker to represent the atmosphere. We used a tool called a LabPro to collect humidity, air temperature and water temperature data. We did the experiment with different temperatures of water in the beaker to test warmer and cooler sea surface temperatures.

Collecting Data

After doing several trials, we found the mean average humidity for each temperature of water that we tested.

This graph shows the increase of the humidity with warmer water temperatures. It shows that between each temperature change the humidity rises by a large amount at first. As the water gets into the 40 to 50 degree area, then it doesn’t change that much. We think this is because at that temperature, there is too much water vapor in the air, so it starts raining down. That leaves the same amount of water vapor in the air. We actually observed “rain” in our apparatus at the warmer temperatures. Droplets of water collected on the inside of the plastic box and then started to drip back into the beaker.

Based on our data, sea surface temperature definitely affects how quickly the surface water will evaporate. That puts more moisture into the air and feeds the tropical storms. That’s why the storms get stronger over warm water and weaker over cool water.