@WakeUpCall – St. Francis Catholic High School Partners with NASA

Amy talks with Cassie from St. Francis Catholic High School talking about her school being chosen to partner with NASA and have their experiments sent up to the International Space Station.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So you know that I love space and anything about
the space program, and we found out that some students
from California get to be part of it. So let's
say good morning to Cassie from Saint Francis Catholic High
School in the Sacramento area.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good morning, Cassie, Hi, good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
I'm happy to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
I'm so happy that you're awake and conscious this morning
at five point fifty. So tell us what you and
your group of students are getting the opportunity to do.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Yeah, so we're part of something called the International Space
Station Program or the ISSP, which is a program for
high school students to work with NASA on an experiment
that'll be sent into space. So here at Saint Francis
and Sacramento, our team is going to be designing and
building and testing a bio experiment that'll be conducted while

(00:56):
in orbit on the International Space Station.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Okay, so it's did you guys come up with the
experiment on your own or do they tell you what
you're going to do?

Speaker 2 (01:05):
How does that work?

Speaker 3 (01:07):
We actually get to design our experiment ourselves. They give
us a small box. It's something called a nanocube. It's
basically a three D printed box the size of a
mini soda can. And as long as our experiment is
small enough to sit in it, we can build whatever
we want.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
And you say it's a bio experiment, So what are
you going to what are you going to do some
testing on?

Speaker 2 (01:30):
What are you going to experiment?

Speaker 3 (01:32):
So we are studying how yeast. It's a very special
strength called sacrificed s visi, which is a very tongue twister.
But we're studying how it's going to grow in space
without gravity, and how that will affect its nutrient uptake,
and how we can use this knowledge for future applications.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
And is it for to learn how we will be
able to produce food on long missions or is this
for use back on Earth?

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Silly. One of our future applications is something called space farming.
Since in space we obviously don't have any water or
air or nutrients. We're trying to find a way to
grow plants in space, and we believe that seeing how
ye selles grow will help us to further that information.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Okay, And Cassie, whose idea was this?

Speaker 3 (02:29):
It was a collective idea from our team and our mentors,
And yeah, we kind of all had to say in
what we were going to do.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
How exciting?

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Okay, and then tell me how did you guys get picked?
Did they randomly pick different schools or did you have
to submit what you wanted to do? And then they
chose the ten schools around the country.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Well, San Francis got chosen because our president, doctor Miran,
was involved in this program at his old schools and
he was very successful with it. So when he came
here to Saint Francis and Sacramento, he brought this opportunity
with him. He has a relationship with the Quest Research
Institute in the Bay Area, so he had enough connections

(03:13):
to be able to become one of those ten schools
in the nation to work with NASA.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
How excited How excited are you for this opportunity.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
I'm very excited. We were invited by NASA to watch
the launch in April, and so we'll be able to
watch our experiment as it's launched to the International Space Station.
And I'm really excited to experience those of my friends
because we've worked so hard on this.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Well, and I will tell you, Cassie that getting to
go and see a launch, it's a bucket list thing
for me. I mean, there are not that many people
who've actually seen the launches in person, so that's a
really really special thing that that's going to be happening.
And then tell me, once your project is up on
the International Space Station, how do you keep track of it?

(04:03):
Will you be talking to the astronauts, will you be
emailing with them? Or do you have scientific gear here
on Earth? How does that all work?

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Yeah, so once it's up on the International Space Station,
we won't be communicating directly. Once a week, they'll be
sending our data down via our computer processors, and so
we'll be able to get our data back at that
time in order to look at it. And that will
happen for I leave four weeks. It's up there for

(04:31):
a month, so once a week we'll be getting the
data back and be able to use that for a
hearback on us.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
Okay, and Cassie, are you you know scienti scientifically incline?
Do you look to have some sort of a career
in STEM.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
Yes, I do. I'm actually looking at major in a
field called zoology, so not quite the same sort of science.
This is more biochemical and mine is more animal sciences.
But I am learning a ton from this experience anyways,
and going.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
To work with animals is a lovely thing, so I
hope that you are wildly successful with.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
This, Cassie.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
We'd love to talk to you again after your experiment's done,
find out what you learned and how it went for you.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yes, okay, and it goes up in it goes up
in April, yes okay. Perfect.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
Well, we will be keeping tabs on you, Cassie. Congratulations
to you and the gang at Saint Francis Catholic and
hope it all goes great and we'll look forward to
hearing back from you once the experiment is complete on
the International Space Station.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Thank you so much, all right, take care. How fun
is that? Isn't that cool?

Speaker 1 (05:41):
I love hearing stuff like that because you hear so
many bad stories all the time. But to hear something
like that where they get an opportunity to, you know,
touch the edge of space and work with the International
Space Station and the astronauts and get to learn all
about their program, I think it's just amazing.