Stockton student spaceflight experiment at Space Station | News … – Shore News Today

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP Two Stockton University students will find out if the experiment they designed will work on the International Space Station.

Stockton University students Danielle Ertz of Woodlynne and Valkyrie Falciani of Hammonton and faculty mentor Tara Luke, associate professor of biology, developed an experiment that studies fungus as a potential force for improving agriculture in space.

The students want to see if astronauts can sustain their food supply in space.

The project was accepted by the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program and launched Monday from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the on SpaceX-CRS-12.

The students watched the launch in person in Florida.

Their experiment uses a mycorrhizal fungus species and flax. Flax was chosen because its seeds are edible, the plant can be used to make cloth, its extensive taproot system allows growth in limited space and it is proven to grow in space.

The experiment consists of a fluid mixing enclosure mini-lab that will hold enough water, fungi spores and flax seed to grow for 4-6 weeks on the International Space Station. The same experiment will be conducted here as a scientific ground truth for later comparison.

The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education in the U.S. and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education. It is enabled through a strategic partnership with DreamUp PBC and NanoRacks LLC, which are working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laborator

For more details see https://stocktonspaceflight.org/.

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Stockton student spaceflight experiment at Space Station | News ... - Shore News Today