91探花

91探花's Student Spaceflight Experiment Project team at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
Student Spaceflight Experiments Program

Student Spaceflight Experiments Program

Help Design the Next Experiment on the International Space Station

A research project designed by a group of 91探花 students in Fall 2023 will soon be traveling to the International Space Station (ISS).

The next group of students will be working together this fall to see which OHIO team will get their experiment sent to space.

Sign up for Mission 19 

If you're interested in space, join OHIO's Student Spaceflight Experiment this fall.

Dr. Sarah Wyatt invites students from all majors 鈥 English to engineering, art to astrophysics and more 鈥 to join OHIO's team in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program's Mission 19 to the ISS.

"You don't need any experience to become part of this," Wyatt emphasized.

For more information on how to participate, contact Sarah Wyatt at wyatts@ohio.edu.

Students can get 2 credits for the time they spend learning about how to design something small enough to send to space. Register for PBIO 2900 Special Topics 鈥 Student Spaceflight Experiment or PBIO 4941 003 Undergraduate Research and Presentation taught by Wyatt in the fall semester. Contact Dr. Wyatt for permission for PBIO 4941. (Note: It is not necessary to take the course to participate.)

SSEP students and Dr. Wyatt at Kennedy Space Center
SSEP students and facilitators visit with astronaut Don Thomas At Kennedy Space Center in July 2024 for the Student Spaceflight Experiment Project Conference.

Students' Mission 18 Experiment Heads for Low-Earth Orbit this Fall

During the fall semester, OHIO students from across the University had the opportunity to design projects and write proposals for the Student Spaceflight Experiment Program鈥檚 Mission 18 to the ISS.

Under the leadership of Dr. Sarah Wyatt, professor of environmental and plant biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, over 34 undergraduates worked in teams with graduate students serving as facilitators throughout the fall semester preparing projects to be judged for the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) program.

The winning team consisted of Michael Lane, Nathan Smith and Victoria Swiler, with facilitator Nick Whitticar. Their project focused on whether the bacteria Sphingomonas sanguinis would promote resilience to microgravity in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.

Pictured: 鈥淭eam Two" members Nathan Smith, a second-year field ecology major (back), and Victoria Swiler, a fourth-year environmental and plant biology major. Photos by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC '02
Pictured: 鈥淭eam Two" members Nathan Smith, a second-year field ecology major (back), and Victoria Swiler, a fourth-year environmental and plant biology major. Photos by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC '02
Members of the winning SSEP team celebrate
Members of the winning SSEP team celebrate.

ABOUT THE PROJECT: The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in the U.S. and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education internationally. It is enabled through a strategic partnership with Nanoracks, LLC, which is working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory. Dr. Sarah Wyatt directs the program at 91探花.