UK schoolkids get space experiment opportunity

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 05 March 2008 09:26

Science - Space

Primary school students in the UK have the opportunity to design a science experiment to be carried out on the International Space Station.

The winning experiment will be performed by Richard Garriott when he makes a privately funded $US30 million trip to the ISS later this year.

Garriott, the British-born son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, is currently in training at Russia's Star City for the eight to ten day spaceflight.

The schools competition is being run in partnership with the British National Space Centre, the country's coordinating body for civil space activities, and is part of the UK Civil Space Strategy 2009-2012 and Beyond.

Making school science experiments a part of a space mission is nothing new. For example, Columbia's ill-fated STS-107 mission included dozens of such experiments from schools around the US and other nations, including one from Glen Waverley Secondary College in Australia that tested the hypothesis that "a spider will build a different web in microgravity than on earth."