Mendenhall Middle School (Guilford County Schools, NC) Mission 5 to ISS “Artificial Ear” Kaya Simpson, Co-PI Joshua Cook, Co-PI Ellie Wright, Co-PI Praise Idika, Co-Investigator Favor Idika, Co-Investigator Sean, Co-Investigator Ben Martin, Co-Investigator Lenny Sue French, Guilford County Teacher Facilitator

Scientific Background Jellyfish in space lost their ability to navigate in gravity conditions Hypothesis: Our hypothesis was that the crystals that were formed in microgravity would be larger than the ones formed on Earth. This could make it impossible for the crystal to move in it’s pocket and indicate gravitational pull. Materials:.5mg Calcium Sulfate powder, 4 ml of distilled water

Procedure As soon as possible (A=0) we had an astronaut activate our experiment by unlatching the clip and shaking to combine the dehydrated CaSo4 and the distilled water. We unlatched the clip on the earth sample as close to the same time as was possible. \

Observations On the FME that went into microgravity we noticed some sort of dust on the outside of the FME. We also noticed that the space sample weighed more than the earth sample.

Space FME Space “dust”

Earth FME

Observations Under a Scanning Electron Microscope, we also noted that the Earth crystals formed consistently shaped and layered CaSo4. crystals.

Observations In the space samples the crystals were not uniform and they did not layer in a consistent pattern.

Earth Space At the individual level we could see that the structure was different as well.

Conclusion Unfortunately the water in our space sample did not completely dehydrate so we did not get to see how large the crystals would have grown in microgravity. This accounted for the extra weight of the space sample.

Analysis Based upon what we know about crystal growth in microgravity we can assume that the crystals would have been larger than the crystals that formed on Earth but after viewing our results, we have expanded our thinking. The odd shape of the crystals that formed in space show that differently shaped crystals could also be a reason for the Jellyfish’s inability to sense gravitational pull. The shape could prevent the crystals from moving.

Moving forward If we were to do this experiment again- Since we cannot control for speed of water dehydration in the space sample we would double bag the earth sample to make it more closely mimic what is happening in space. We should then be able to compare size AND shape of crystals more accurately.

Thank You