Six Northport Public School students are embarking on a stellar project focused on space exploration of the moon that could earn them a trip to the Kennedy Space Center later this year.
Northport school is one of only two schools in Michigan fielding a team in NASA’s nationwide 2024 Artemis ROADS (ROVER Observation and Drone Survey) Challenge.
The program is hosted by Northwest Earth and Space Sciences Pathways in partnership with NASA, and gives students the opportunity to complete eight lunar mission objectives related to NASA Artemis Missions, which aims to send humans back to the moon. Teams research and design their own NASA mission and encompasses various handson activities like rover programming and cultivating moon plants.
Karen Trolenberg leads the Northport School science club and is also the team’s mission advisor for the NASA program. She initially found out about the project when she was looking for student resources to observe the upcoming eclipse on April 8, but instead stumbled on to the Artemis program. Seeing all it could offer and teach students, Trolenberg was able to sign the team up to participate just before the deadline in January.
“I was scrambling because I thought it sounded pretty cool, but of course I had to look into it to vet it to make sure it was legitimate,” Trolenberg said. “Not only is it free, but they send you the resources that you need which is nice… I’m impressed with the program, I think we will continue it in the future, it really gets them (students) thinking, and its hands on.”
The challenge is open for students in grades 3-12 throughout the United States, however, only kids 12 years and older are eligible to be selected to go to the Kennedy Space Center. Because of this, Trolenberg said she wanted to include six middle school students, four 8th graders and two 7th graders, so they could have a chance at visiting the museum if they did qualify at the end of the challenge.
“For teams that complete all of the mission objectives, you go into a drawing for a random chance at winning a trip to the Kennedy Space Center for all team members, which is fabulous…” she said. “They really showed a leap of faith in me by trusting me because it was hard to explain and I was under the gun.”
Students started on their eight mission objectives in February and have been holding work sessions every other week. The objectives include: starting a mission development log and documenting team planning, making a mission patch representing your team, getting to the moon by creating a rocket, and building habitats on the moon. The fifth mission is gardening on the moon, followed by the last three objectives: Studying the earth from the moon, building a robot to traverse the moon’s surface, and presenting the final mission closeout.
On Monday, kids saw an exciting turn of events for their “gardening on the moon” objective. After planting radish and lettuce seeds using three different mixtures of soils, such as regolith, a sort of mock moon soil, and Michigan soil, each plant sprouted for the first time. When the weather gets a little warmer, Trolenberg said kids will start other objectives like testing a water rocket bottle launcher to compare which styles launch better.
“We divided and conquered some of the mission objectives, and there’s a mission specialist for each project… It’s nice because they all find different aspects about it cool. There’s no pressure for any of them to be scientists, but it’s just the exposure,” said Trolenberg, who noted students have stepped up to take the lead on certain missions like planting the seeds or computer coding. “I really like the diversity of the requirements, and that each team member, some of whom might be shy, are like ‘oh yeah, I can do that.’ So they found their specialty, but it’s still a team effort, so if someone finishes early, another can step in to help.”
The Northport team is called “Lunar Leapers,” and just like the NASA astronauts who go on missions, had to design their own mission patch representing their team. Every student chimed in with their ideas for the patch, which features an image of the moon and an outline of Michigan. There are 26 stars on the outside border representing Michigan as the 26th state in the union, and it’s blue to symbolize the water in the Great Lakes state. A little rocket can also be seen launching from Leelanau County, representing the mission’s objective to build habitats on the moon.
“I thought that was really nice and even more special when I realized there were only two Michigan teams… I like to get the kids excited about science, so everybody is a specialist in something,” she said. “It was the perfect introduction to the program because it required people to have ideas and to work together on how we want to represent ourselves.”
Trolenberg said as the other mission objectives are currently in progress, she is aiming to wrap up the entire project by mid-April. When the Artemis ROADS Challenge ends after June 5, the team will submit its results virtually and be eligible for a trip to the space center.
“They (the program) had about 75 people go last year,” she said. “Our odds are a little bit better than I initially thought… Everyone just needs to finish — It’s a random team raffle.”
