Let’s just put it this way: To a layperson, the whole concept is almost incomprehensible. But for six kids at Brethren Christian School in Huntington Beach, it’s become a normal topic of conversation.
In a couple of months, the small but mighty International Space Station (ISS) Team will send a tiny clock 260 miles upward to see how the device fares in outer space. Impressively, the young scientists’ otherworldly experiment will be monitored by astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
“I’m just a person on this big planet in this small school,” said Colby Peterson, 17, a junior. “But I’m sending an experiment into space. That’s hard to get my head around.”
The engineering club, made up of four boys and two girls, partnered with San Jose-based Quest for Space. According to its website, the educational program has launched more than 100 student-designed experiments – investigating topics such as plant health, bacterial growth and ant behavior.
“The sky’s the limit,” said parent volunteer Mike Donahoe.
Donahoe, who has worked as a program manager for U.S. Air Force Space Command, was drafted onto the Brethren Christian ISS Team for obvious reasons. With no child of his own in the club, his counsel is purely a labor of love.
“My daughter had zero desire to participate,” Donahoe said.
Brethren Christian Superintendent John Moran initiated the ISS program after joining the school in 2017. He previously had helped bring the Quest for Space program to Riverside Christian Schools.
“Although I’m not a scientist myself, I strongly believe in science education,” Moran said. “I give the kids support and encouragement from the sidelines, but I’m not qualified to give them advice. I understand almost none of it.”
Moran said that Brethren Christian is the only school in Orange County participating in the program this year.
The International Space Station, circling Earth at a low orbit 17,000 miles per hour, has been continuously inhabited since it was launched in 1998. About the size of a football field, it is a joint mission shared by the United States, Russia, Japan, Europe and Canada.
On a recent afternoon, half of the club’s members, dressed in business attire, took turns explaining a PowerPoint about their experiment to a handful of adults. The other three team members were occupied with after-school sports.
“The coats and ties demonstrate that we’re serious about this project,” said Andrew Shiroma, 16, a sophomore.
Their presentation marked the fourth and final “Critical Design Review.” The process began with approval of the experiment by Quest for Space last fall. “A lot of it has been trial and error,” Peterson said.
If all goes as scheduled, the team’s handiwork will head for the Space Station in April, on a date partly determined by weather. Carrying supplies for the crew, the unmanned rocket will take off from Wallops Island, Va.
The project will arrive in a module — the size of a toothpaste box — containing a tiny camera and an electronic clock that precisely measures time. An identical clock will remain in the classroom for comparison.
The teen scientists hope to show that the clock sent into space comes back a fraction of a second younger, in keeping with Albert Einstein’s theory of relative time in space.
Astronauts will implement the experiment and transmit data to the students weekly for 30 days, after which the devices will be returned via a cargo vessel.
Biola University’s Lim Center for Science, Technology and Health donated expertise and equipment to the project. Engineering professor Stanley Ng sat in the audience for the team’s last Critical Design Review.
“They’ve done a great job,” Ng said. “It has been wonderful to watch the students learn by doing and to see their ideas come to life.”
Long interested in computers, coding and science, Shiroma and Peterson both plan to pursue careers in the field. But the youngest in the group, seventh-grader Kaito Ochiai, 12, is not so sure.
“I’m here because my mom signed me up,” Ochiai admitted. He might not remain on the ISS Team next year, he said, but has enjoyed the experience.
When the three boys were asked if they would like to travel in space someday, answers varied.
“If the opportunity arises, I probably would do it,” Shiroma said.
Peterson was more cautious. “I would wait until space travel became a common occurrence for civilians,” he said. “I don’t want to be a pioneer.”
After a moment’s thought, Ochiai responded, “I would if there’s an In-N-Out up there.”