Students look for concrete solutions in Space Station
An Orbital Sciences rocket recently blasted off from the Nasa Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, bringing with it a project designed by the students from St Nessan’s Community College, who were winners of a competition called The Only Way is Up run by the Irish Centre for Composites Research.
The students’ win brought them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to investigate the effects of microgravity on reinforced concrete over a 30-day period orbiting the earth. The experiment to measure the possibility of building in outer space was designed and built by transition year students Jason Hannan, Kevin Hanley, Jamie O’Connell and Jonathan Roche, with support from their teacher Gavin Doyle.
Irish Cement, who sponsored their visit to the Nasa facility in May, also gave them access to their laboratory. “We spent about two months in class trying to get the mixture right,” Jamie O’Connell explained. “This is the sort of thing that you cannot learn in a text book. You have to work out the problems and the solutions for yourself and see what works best.”
The experiment will be activated by an astronaut through mixing cement, water, gravel and basalt rock fibres. The students will carry out post space flight analysis on the resulting compound and compare it directly to a ground controlled experiment.
“The project, which has put them in touch with engineers, researchers and even an astronaut, opens doors to the exciting opportunities the world of science can bring,” said Dr Norah Patten, communication and outreach manager at Icomp.
“The creativity of the students was incredible. This project has allowed them the unique opportunity to develop an actual space experiment and for the first time launch it to the space station.”
The Only Way is Up was also funded by Science Foundation Ireland and the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Limerick.
