This month, Junipero Serra High School in Gardena held a pep rally to celebrate the accomplishments of its cutting-edge space team, perhaps its least traditional team.
Seniors Isaiah Dunn, Christopher Holbert, Travis Leonard, Anderson Pecot and Henry Toler, junior Keith Davie and freshman Jonathan Cruz showed their classmates around the 3D printing experiment they sent into orbit aboard the International Space Station. Meanwhile, his classmates did what they usually do at pep rallies; They cheered, asked questions, and because this was a Catholic school, they prayed.
Team members aim to do more than expand the boundaries of knowledge. They also hope to make the school the best place for science education.
“We will be pioneers,” said 17-year-old Leonard. “We will be the founders who start a new path for Serra students.”
The team continues its second experiment, carried out in microgravity conditions of the space station. The current one launched on March 21 from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 CRS-30 Rocket and docked with the International Space Station two days later.
The experiment involves injecting a light-activated resin into a 3D-printed mold of a Lego brick. The resin is then exposed to UV light to cause it to harden. The goal is to compare the physical and chemical properties of the object created in space with those of the same object created on the ground.
Kenneth Irvine, chair of the school’s science department and the team’s advisor, said the group used a 3D printer on campus to print parts for the printer sent into space. “Since our experiment takes place in space, we will do a parallel experiment here.”
Holbert said the goal of the project is to one day enable the space station to replace things that break on the ship, such as fasteners or tools, in 3D instead of sending them from Earth.
“Our goal is to reach a point where we can reliably 3D print in space, which will save thousands of dollars per part,” Holbert said.
The cost of launching an item on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has fallen from $10,000 per kilogram in 2009 to between $1,520 and $2,500 now, according to Georgetown University. But this is still expensive; Even sending a pair of bolts weighing one-tenth of a pound each to fly into space would cost between $138 and $227. Hence the interest in modifying orbit.
“What’s so exciting is that this is a 100% student-focused project that we believe will help NASA and private industries better understand space,” said Serra President John Moran. said. “There are no other schools, let alone high schools, that contribute to our knowledge of space.”
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Serra, along with Calvary Chapel of Santa Ana, is one of nine national high schools participating in the International Space Station program operated through the San José Quest Institute for Quality Education.
Moran said the school received a $50,000 grant from the Ahmanson Foundation to participate in the program. The school also benefited from the use of Makers Space, laboratories, materials, and professional guidance from engineers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering; as most of the team members were part of the youth chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers there.
Last year, the space team studied the germination rates of Wisconsin Fast Plants in space.
So far, there has been no statement from NASA about how the 3D printing experiment is going.
“We will all wait for updates,” said Toler, whose role is to ensure the experiment can withstand the rigors of space travel. “I still think it’s great to have something in space right now.”
What impressed Irvine and Moran about the team was the members’ ability to balance space studies with academic and extracurricular duties.
Holbert, who will attend Loyola Marymount in the fall, is president of the chess club, a member of the school’s football and gardening teams and is involved in the robotics and engineering clubs.
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Leonard, who is deciding between USC and Howard University, plays football, and Grace is a member of gardening, robotics and coding clubs. He is also the ambassador of the school.
Toler plays basketball and golf, Dunn will American football in Italy next year he joins the school’s literary magazine, is president of the writing club, and plays football, football and rugby.
Cruz, a lone freshman, is interested in coding and robotics.
“This is an incredible group that is extremely committed to themselves and the business,” Irvine said.
The space crew was honored by state Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) on the California Senate floor in Sacramento on Monday.
Bradford noted that Serra was the first inner-city school whose students were predominantly white to participate in the International Space Station program.
“This is part of the school’s ongoing efforts to strengthen STEM education for all students, especially underserved students in South Los Angeles,” Bradford said in a statement. “These students I am honoring are incredibly talented scholars and it is a privilege to have them. They have been recognized by the California State Senate.”
While team members were proud of their accomplishments in space, they expressed excitement in knowing they had sparked interest in STEM and space studies in Serra and surrounding communities.
“We have some freshmen coming next year just because of this program,” Dunn said. “This used to be just for football and sports. Now we have students who want to be a part of our space program. It’s incredible.”
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This story was first published in the Los Angeles Times.