On Thursday, Jan. 30, Tanya Silva, Engagement Director for Future Engineers: NASA TechRise Student Challenge, announced that NASA has selected sixty winning teams from across the nation for its fourth ”TechRise Student Challenge.” This is a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) competition offering sixth through twelfth graders the unique opportunity to design and test their own innovative solutions for space exploration and the study of Earth, while getting hands-on insight into the payload design and flight test process. This inspires a deeper understanding of space exploration, Earth observation, coding, electronics, and the value of test data.

A team of Gorham students was among the sixty winners. Zachary Bourgoin, Baxter Flagg, Everett Hurder, Riley McCallister, and Carter Taiani, along with their teacher, Rebecca Ambrose submitted the following idea:

“The investigation we are planning to conduct is an attempt to find more cost-effective spacesuit materials. We learned that the production of a single spacesuit can cost upwards of $20 million dollars. We are investigating the extent to which Mylar insulation, a key component in the creation of spacesuits, will be able to shield our sensors from ultraviolet radiation and temperature changes. We are planning to test at least one other form of material, in order to compare its performance to that of Mylar. Ideally, we would like to create our own alternate form of insulation. We will graph the changes in UV radiation levels and temperature for both materials as they relate to the balloon’s altitude.”

Competition winners receive $1,500 to build their payloads and an assigned spot on a NASA-sponsored commercial flight test. This is an incredible achievement and opportunity for the students and Gorham High School.

During a meeting on March 3, the team drafted this statement; “While working on the NASA “TechRise Challenge” we hope to learn more about the different fields of STEM. Our experiment is testing how more commonly found materials could potentially be used to create a spacesuit. While working on our experiment we are developing our skills in CAD, learning how to solder, and learning how to effectively wire our flight box. We will also need to learn how to interpret the data that will be collected during our launch. As a team it is exciting to collaborate on a CubeSat experiment that will fly around 70,000 feet into the atmosphere.”