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in addition to all the experiments that

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the astronauts take part in on board the

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International Space Station there are

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occasionally opportunities for students

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on the ground to take part in some of

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the space experiments as well one of the

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programs that does that is mission

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discovery it's sponsored by I set and

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higher orbits and we have Michelle ham

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the founder and president of higher

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orbits in the u.s. director for I set on

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the phone today to tell us more about

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that program thanks for joining us

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Michelle hi Brandi thanks for having me

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good morning thanks we really appreciate

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it why don't we start by having you tell

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us a little bit more about what a

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mission discovery is and what the

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organizations at sponsoring our I said

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and higher orbits are both non-profits

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that use space to get students

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interested in stem leadership and team

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building i said is a uk-based charity

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run by chris barber that i am proud to

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be the u.s. director for and higher

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orbits is something that i founded here

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in the US mission discovery is a

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five-day program for high school and

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university students where we use space

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to get students interested in stem

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frankly I think if we can't get someone

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excited about science using space we're

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doing something wrong it's a five-day

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program where they work in teams and the

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culmination of the week is that they

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have to design an experiment where the

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experiment can fly to space station and

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the winning teams experiment actually

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does fly to space station and I think

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y'all recently had some of the the first

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experiments from that program fly is

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that right that's correct we are so

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excited to say that our first

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experiments have flown to space station

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on orb one in January King's College

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London students while they're from

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London our mission discovery was held at

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king of college we have 12 students who

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participated in two experiments one to

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test the effectiveness of antibiotics in

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space and the other to determine whether

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slime mold will grow three-dimensionally

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through Aaron microgravity both of those

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experiments launched on orb one and

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we've gotten some data back that the

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students are very excited to start

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analyzing so how do you gather that data

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we were very lucky that coochie was kind

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enough to take a whole lot of pictures

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for us and so instead of the experiments

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being manifested back down they did come

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back with or one back through the

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atmosphere

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and we have a lot of pictures to go

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through and analyze and have the

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students begin you said you've gotten

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some of the data back but have the

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students been eight able to go through

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it yet have you have you seen their

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reactions so I have not seen their

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reactions as far as the data goes

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because our students are not all from

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the same school necessarily and so we

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haven't been able to gather them all

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together yet but I can tell you that

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after speaking at speaking with the

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students at launch and after launch they

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were so incredibly excited this was such

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a life-changing experience for them I

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mean I don't know about you Brandi but

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if I could have my experiment flown into

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space when I was 16 17 18 years old I'm

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pretty sure that would have been a game

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changer for me then yeah that's a big

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deal for students so how did they go

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about designing their experiments how

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did how did they get started well we

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give them very specific parameters sighs

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wait power draw but then we leave it

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open to them to come up with their own

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ideas our King's College experiments did

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have a biomed focus because King's

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College has a very very prominent

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aerospace med program and so they wanted

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to take that slant but with our other

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mission discoveries we leave it wide

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open Engineering crystals biology and so

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the students if this all comes out of

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their heads and I am continually amazed

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at the ideas that these students come up

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with honestly there are things that

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myself and the astronauts who are part

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of mission discovery for the entire week

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there are a lot of times where we will

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look at one another and say wow would

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you have thought of that when you were

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16 17 years old and a lot of times the

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answer is no we probably wouldn't have

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and sprain what are the one of the

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students do with them with the results

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what where does it go from there so our

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goal is for the students to work

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together to analyze the results to again

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foster that sense of teamwork and then

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to foster the leadership skills that

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we're trying to help instill in them we

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want them to take it back to other

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schools and present about it we're not

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necessarily expecting that they're going

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to get a Nobel Prize out of their

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experiment efforts but we do want them

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to help excite other youngsters about

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space and Science and Technology not

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trying to convince them all to be rocket

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scientists I just want to show them that

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there's a great bunch of opportunities

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for them at the other end of a stem

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education well good luck i hope that

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sounds really promising now that you've

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kind of gotten

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the first set of experiments flown and

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have gotten to some data back what

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what's next what is there going to be

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another set of experiments going up or

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well what's next is very exciting for us

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we will have more experiments launching

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on orb 3 in the fall and this summer we

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will run at least five different mission

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discoveries including mission

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discoveries at embry-riddle Aeronautical

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in Daytona Beach Valparaiso University

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in Indiana st. John's College in

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Annapolis one in renfrewshire Scotland

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and another at King's College in London

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and we have a couple others that that

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we're working on to bring to bring two

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different areas including potentially

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one in Houston so we're very excited

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about the number of students lives that

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we're going to be able to touch this

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year that's great if students were

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interested in getting involved in it

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what should they do they can check us

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out on ww mission discovery info and

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take a look we welcome students on a

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residential and non-residential basis so

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even if there's not one right in your

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backyard you can travel to one and stay

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with us for the week and it's unique

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because we do have an astronaut as a

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mentor all week and I can tell you

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firsthand that the students get a great

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kick out of meeting the astronauts but i

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think the astronauts enjoy getting to

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really know these students pretty well

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during the week as well I bet they do

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thank you again for joining us that

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sounds like a really awesome program and

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we're excited to learn more about it and

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let us know you will check back in I'm

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sure at some point and find out what the

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students learn from this first round of

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experiments and what what's coming up on

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the next round sounds great thank you so