1. THE ONLY WAY IS UP!
GROUND CONTROL TO IRISH TRANSITION YEAR STUDENTS

2. ABOUT THE COMPETITION
• Is the first of its kind in Ireland
• Allowing a project designed by Irish students
to spend 30 days orbiting the Earth.
• The winning experiment will fly to the
International Space Station (ISS) on board a
launch vehicle.

3. HOW DID THIS PROJECT COME TO IRELAND
Dr Norah Patten – University of Limerick
Involved in a number of space project
initiatives in ireland and
internationally .
Visited the NASA in 2012

4. The First Commercial Classroom in Space

5. Their goal is to facilitate real space
missions and opportunities for second
level student and aim to provide
everything needed to get your
research and discovery mission
underway on the ISS
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_390.html

6. Customers use them
directly or through
educational partners.
Customers and partners
include:
School Districts
Universities
Community Colleges
Technical Schools
NCESSE (National
Center for Earth and
Space Science
Education)
NASA
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/8190337497/sizes/l/in/photostream/

7. MixStix will be
used for the
experiments.
Substances
(ones deemed
safe) are
packed into
clear silicon
tubes with
clamps.
They are easily
activated by

8. Mixture Tubes/MixStix
Hold up to 3 substances
Substances can be fluid, gas,
solid/powder
Holds 10 milliliters volume in total
Refrigeration is allowed
Students create a “flight unit” and a
“control unit”
Tube will be returned to the students
for analysis

9. Some examples of past
experiments are observations
of substances, elements, or
plants in microgravity as well
as more sophisticated
procedures such as a
biological growth and study of
antibiotic resistance.

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12. WHAT WE WANT YOU TO DO NOW!
What comes next:
Work in teams of 4/5 students
Submit an Abstract:
norah.patten@ul.ie
before December 20th 2013

13. THE ONLY WAY IS UP
What to put into the ‘abstract’?
Team Name & Name of Experiment.
250 word paragraph to describe your
experiment.
What is it about?
What materials/substances are
involved?
What do you hope to investigate?
Why is this important to
investigate?
Submit to
norah.patten@ul.ie
By the December 20 th

14. THE ONLY WAY IS UP: GUIDELINES FOR
EXPERIMENTS
•
Must meet NanoRacks rules
• Avoid permanent magnets
• Avoid pressure vessels (make sure
your contents wont expand so much
they break the tube)
• Avoid substances with toxicity higher
than 2 on Materials Safety Data
Sheets (MSDS’s)

15. FIELDS OF MICRO-GRAVITY EXPERIMENTS
CONDUCTED BY NANORACKS
Pharmaceutical
Silicone Crystal growth
Material science
Microbiology
Biotechnology
Physic laws
Magnetic field research
Combustion
Plasma research
Small animal research
In space component testing

16. WHY TO GO TO SPACE?
• Physical and Biological processes are
different in microgravity.
• Uniqueness of microgravity
environment can enable new
commercial products to be developed.
Perhaps develop technologies required for the
permanent occupation of space??

17. WHERE TO LOOK NEXT
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18. NanoRacks Platform-1 and NR-2
What would you
 Two research platformsup ?
dream developed and
funded by NanoRacks in just six months;
 16 payload slots in the CubeSat form
factor of 10 cm by 10 cm by 10 cm
 USB standard interface
 Allows the ultimate plug-and-play for
for payloads—customers includes
students
and researchers
Permanent addition to U.S. National Lab
on Space Station.

19. WINNER FROM THE SCHOOL
• Once the Abstracts have been have been
submitted a winning team will be selected.
• The winning team from the school will have
an opportunity to present their experiment to
a panel of judges in the University of
Limerick.
• From this judging panel the winner of the
competition will be selected

20. THE ONLY WAY IS UP: SPONSORS
Thank you
Questions ?