Stony Brook School students to grow plants at the International Space Station
STONY BROOK, Long Island (WABC) -- Students at the Stony Brook School on Long Island are "over the moon" about an experiment they are about to launch.
The director of the private school's STEM education program, with its impressive students and resources, found a space experiment for students permitted by NASA.
"You can't poison or hurt or kill the astronauts, and you can't bring the International Space Station down," said Stan Winston, STEM director of the Stony Brook School.
They found that for the fee of $23,000, the students are able to send a tiny aeroponics system in a container the size of a toilet paper roll to the International Space Station. The system will use mist generated by circuits to germinate plant seeds.
Every three days they will be able to take pictures of what they grow, and send the data home from space.
It will take a lot of trial and error to get the right fit.
Then again, these are students who each have a passion for engineering and design. They have created everything from robotics, to telescopes, to a 3D self-playing chess game.
There are 10 students in this program who have worked on this experiment, including one who is working remotely from India and another who contributed from Ukraine.
They hope to prove the value of growing food without soil in space.
The launch is scheduled for May 6 and after all the hard work, the students say they hope to have a watch party on launch day.
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