This month, Junipero Serra Excessive Faculty in Gardena had a pep rally to rejoice the achievements of what is likely to be its least typical crew: its cutting-edge area squad.
Seniors Isaiah Dunn, Christopher Holbert, Travis Leonard, Anderson Pecot and Henry Toler, junior Keith Davie and freshman Jonathan Cruz walked their classmates via the 3D-printing experiment they despatched into orbit on the Worldwide House Station. Their classmates, in the meantime, did what they normally do at pep rallies — they cheered, they requested questions and, as a result of it’s a Catholic faculty, they prayed.
The crew members goal to do extra than simply increase the frontier of information. They’re additionally hoping to make the college right into a high place to check science.
“We get to be the pioneers,” Leonard, 17, mentioned. “We get to be the founders who began a brand new path for Serra college students.”
The crew is on its second experiment carried out within the microgravity circumstances of the area station. The present one was launched aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 CRS-30 Rocket from Florida’s Kennedy House Heart on March 21 and docked with the Worldwide House Station two days later.
The Serra Excessive Faculty area crew, from left, Jonathan Cruz, 15; Henry Toler, 18, proven talking; Travis Leonard, 17; Isaiah Dunn, 17; and Andersen Pecot, 17, take turns speaking about their participation in The Worldwide House Station program after watching a video of their mission being launched on the Cape Canaveral House Power Station.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Occasions)
The experiment entails injecting a light-activated resin right into a 3D printed mould of a Lego brick. The resin is then uncovered to UV mild to trigger it to harden. The purpose is to match the bodily and chemical properties of the thing created in area with these of an similar object created on the bottom.
Kenneth Irvine, the college’s science division chair and the crew’s adviser, mentioned the group used a 3D printer on campus to print the elements for the printer despatched into area. “As our experiment is going down in area, we’re going to be working a parallel experiment down right here.”
The purpose of the mission, mentioned Holbert, is to sooner or later allow the area station to 3D-print replacements for issues that break on board, such a fasteners or instruments, quite than having to ship them from earth.
“The purpose is to get to some extent the place we will reliably 3D-print in area, which might save hundreds of {dollars} per half,” Holbert mentioned.
The associated fee to launch an merchandise on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has dropped from $10,000 per kilogram in 2009 to someplace between $1,520 and $2,500 now, according to Georgetown University. However that’s nonetheless costly — even sending a pair of bolts weighing a tenth of a pound every would price between $138 and $227 to fly into area. Therefore the curiosity in making replacements in orbit.
“What’s so thrilling is that it is a 100% student-driven mission that we imagine will assist NASA and personal industries higher perceive area,” Serra President John Moran mentioned. “There aren’t many different faculties, not to mention excessive faculties, including to our data of area.”
Serra is one in every of 9 nationwide excessive faculties, together with Santa Ana Calvary Chapel, collaborating within the International Space Space Station program run via the Quest Institute for High quality Schooling of San José.
The college has obtained $50,000 in grants from the Ahmanson Basis to take part in this system, Moran mentioned. The college has additionally benefited from the usage of the Makers Space, labs, supplies {and professional} steerage from engineers on the USC Viterbi Faculty of Engineering, on condition that a lot of the crew members are a part of the Nationwide Society of Black Engineers junior chapter there.
Final 12 months, the area crew studied germination charges of Wisconsin Fast Plants in area.
Thus far, there was no phrase from NASA on how the 3D-printing experiment goes.
“We’re all going to be ready for updates,” mentioned Toler, whose position is to ensure the experiment can survive the trials of area journey. “I simply suppose to have one thing up in area proper now’s wonderful, although.”
What has impressed Irvine and Moran in regards to the crew is the members’ capacity to steadiness area work with a full slate of educational and extracurricular duties.
Holbert, who’s headed to Loyola Marymount within the fall, is chess membership president, a member of the college’s soccer and gardening groups and is on the robotics and engineering golf equipment.
Leonard, who’s deciding between USC and Howard College, performs soccer and is a member of the Grace, gardening and robotic and coding golf equipment. He’s additionally a college ambassador.
Toler performs basketball and golf, whereas Dunn, who can be taking part in American football in Italy subsequent 12 months, is concerned within the faculty’s literary evaluation, is the writing membership president and performs soccer, soccer and rugby.
Cruz, the lone freshman, is concerned in coding and robotics.
“It’s simply an unimaginable group that could be very devoted to themselves and the work,” Irvine mentioned.
On Monday, the area crew was honored on the California Senate ground in Sacramento by state Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Gardena).
Bradford famous that Serra is the primary inner-city faculty whose college students are predominantly non-white to take part within the Worldwide House Station program.
“That is a part of the college’s ongoing efforts to strengthen STEM schooling for all college students, particularly underserved college students in South Los Angeles,” Bradford mentioned in a press release. “These college students I’m honoring are extremely proficient students, and it’s a privilege to have them acknowledged by the California State Senate.”
Whereas the crew members are pleased with their accomplishments in area, they’ve every talked about the thrill realizing that they’ve piqued curiosity in STEM and areas research at Serra and in surrounding communities.
“We now have some freshmen coming in subsequent 12 months simply due to this program,” Dunn mentioned. “That was once only for soccer and sports activities. Now we’ve college students eager to be a part of our area program. It’s unimaginable.”
