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Andrew Chen, a sophomore at East Rockaway Middle School, won second place in NASA’s “Growing Beyond Earth” science research competition for his idea to help astronauts stay in space longer.
The April 20 symposium is a NASA-sponsored classroom-based science competition designed to advance research into growing plants in space. This is the first year East Rockaway School District has participated in the program. Chen submitted a research proposal to the competition, in which he talked about the effects of elevated CO2 concentrations on the germination rate of Eruca sativa, also known as astro-arugula.
Chen’s research aims to solve the problem of processing and preserving fresh food for long-term space missions, and has investigated options for growing produce on the International Space Station and on Mars.
“The basic idea of this project was to mimic the conditions found in extraterrestrial locations,” Chen said. “The problem is that I’m on Earth and I can’t grow plants in a zero-gravity environment, so I decided to recreate a high-CO2 environment, because on the ISS the percentage of CO2 is in the range of 3,000-4,000 ppm.”
Chen’s research into how plants grow in a space environment like the ISS has helped him learn how to grow plants in other space environments.
When Cheng began his research in January, he noticed that all the studies he had seen so far had focused solely on how climate change-induced CO2 concentrations affected plants. The highest CO2 concentration he had found was 1,000 ppm. So he began his project by building a box that could trap high concentrations of CO2.
Cheng 3D printed the box with the help of his digital fabrication teacher, and used dry ice to increase the carbon dioxide concentration inside the box, reaching 3,000 ppm with less than a tenth of a gram of dry ice.
“When we first built the box, we lost about half of the carbon dioxide inside it, so building the box took up most of the time in this experiment, and that was probably the biggest challenge,” Chen said.
For Chen, getting the CO2 was not an easy task. He wanted to test his research project before the actual presentation with NASA scientists, but was unable to do so because his supplier ran out of dry ice. According to Chen, this was one of the major constraints he faced during his research.
“The bottom line is that elevated carbon dioxide concentrations are actually beneficial for plants because they caused the plants to germinate a day earlier than usual,” Chen said.
Chen also noted that the germination rate in his study was 33 percent higher than in the control experiment.
“Because this is an international conference, all of the presentations were actually done on Zoom,” science research teacher Ms. Forbes said, “The students split into different cubicles with four scientists each to listen to the presentations and then ask questions.”
Chen said he was one of the last to present in the breakout session, and after hearing the “really great” presentations from his colleagues, he thought he would be nowhere near making it into the top 10. He said he was really surprised to hear that he had placed second in the competition, and was “very excited.”
Chen believes his research will have a big impact on astronauts, who are limited in how long they can stay in space, explaining that food sent from Earth needs to be thoroughly cleaned of dust and particles to be edible in space.
“Having only fresh produce in space would allow astronauts to stay in space for longer periods because they would get the nutrition they need,” Chen says, “and because it’s fresh, they’re more likely to enjoy it.”
Forbes said it had been inspiring and rewarding to watch Cheng work through the scientific research process and execute a “robust research plan”.
“One of the things I’ve always loved about scientific research is that it really inspires a lot of young people to do independent research,” Forbes said. “There are so many opportunities out there, the only limit is what you can come up with.”
Chen said she plans to take part in more scientific research courses and competitions in the future.
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