Students look for concrete solutions in Space Station

A group of Limerick students have been looking skyward with more than a passing interest over the past few weeks as they await the results of an experiment taking place at the International 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.