An ISSET-made experiment module inside the International Space Station
Mission Discovery is an international education program run for teenagers in many countries around the world. The programme started in 2011 in King's College London, England, and has since expanded to Australia, the US, India and other countries.
Mission discovery is run and directed by ISSET (International Space School Educational Trust), a registered UK charity founded in 1998 by Chris Barber.[1]
So far there have been 15 successful programs: one in India, twelve in the UK and two in the US. Each program has given the students the chance to work with space scientists while they work as a team designing experiments. As part of this program, at least one experiment designed by the students is sent to, and carried out on, the International Space Station.[2][3]
Format
Mission Discovery is a week-long event in which the pupils are split into random groups to design an experiment that could be launched into space. During this week the teams are involved in exercises designed to develop their leadership, team building, and personal development skills, while also giving them an insight into scientific fields with a relation to space. The pupils will also hear talks from various astronauts, scientists and people from fields outside of science, covering topics including biomedical and scientific research done by NASA, and the astronaut's experiences in space, as well as topics like public speaking and how to suitably present information. Towards the end of the week, the program is more focused on the design of the students' experiments. The students are given time to design an experiment they believe could work in space and are then tasked with presenting it in both, an informative and interesting way. On the final day, the pupils present their ideas to other colleagues and mentors as well as different scientists, doctors, and professors from universities. The winning idea has their experiment designed and sent to the International Space Station where astronauts there will carry out experiments.[4][5][6][7]
So far there have been twenty different winning experiments. Each is then further designed with help from researchers and scientists. After a lengthy process of designing the experiment, the winning team is invited to watch the rocket launch carrying their experiment to the International Space Station. These experiments are then carried out by the current astronauts on board the ISS. Depending on the complexity and the issues with the experiments, they normally take up three years to be launched and carried out on board the ISS.[8]
Previous programmes
Year
Location
Winning Team
Winning Experiment(s)
2012
King's College London, UK
-
To test the effectiveness of antibiotics on E. coli in space
-
An experiment to examine if slime mold grows in three dimensions in space
An experiment to determine if probiotic bacteria is the best antiseptic for use in space
King's College London, UK
Icarus
An experiment to see if electricity generating bacteria will increase either the rate or amount of electricity generated in a microgravity environment, compared with the same process on Earth
Usefulness of heat, mixing, straws and pipetting in separating immiscible liquids neatly into their separate components on the International Space Station
2018
Hyderabad Public School, India
Refractive Minds
An experiment on the effects of gravity on the qualitative nutritional value of carbohydrates, broken down by the enzyme salivary amylase, in food
King's College London, UK
Apol10
Measuring the rate of cell division in space using GFP
TITAN pHive
Planarian Flatworm Regeneration in Microgravity
University of Melbourne, Australia
Star Sailors
The effectiveness of antibacterials produced by flies on E. Coli in microgravity
Looking at Wax worms and their consummation of plastic in the hope to find a more efficient way to dispose of plastic on the International Space Station
Aravali, India
NOZK2AS
The effectiveness of natural antibacterials in inhibiting the growth of Escherichia Coli (E.coli) DH5-Alpha in microgravity
Sending earthworms to the ISS to test whether they can keep soil stable in a micro-gravity environment
King's College London, UK
Chimera
investigating the effects of micro-gravity on the biomass and PHA production of Haloarchaea
University of the West of Scotland, UK
Interstellar Intellectuals
Determining whether increasing root pressure in microgravity would improve the effectiveness of plant growth
Tonbridge School, UK
The Argonauts
Determining whether yeast is able to undergo sexual reproduction in a microgravity environment
2021
Newcastle, UK
Mission Waterfall
Exploring Biofilm - Biofilms on bacteria will degrade at an increased rate in microgravity than on earth
King's College London, UK
Nebula 21
To determine the effect of microgravity and varying pressure on the efficiency of a ferrofluid energy harvester
2022
Singapore
A*SSET-12
To determine if zero gravity affects the epigenetics of Dictyostelium discoideum, specifically whether the individual amoeba cells are able to come together to form a multicellular slug when resources are depleted, as they do on Earth
King's College London
TBD
TBD
People involved
Scientists involved in the program have included:[9]
Dr. Julie Keeble, Pharmacology, King's College London
Prof. Steve Harridge, Human and Applied Physiology, King's College London
Dr. James Clarke, Human and Applied Physiology, King's College London
Dr. David Green, Human and Aerospace Physiology, King's College London
Completion
A picture of one of the winning teams with an astronaut
On completion of the program, the winning team then has to wait and go through the process of their experiment idea being built from only their design. This is a process which involves the team working with a scientist who helps them make their experiment suitable for the space station, because what the students choose, meaning the specifics, isn't always the best way for it to be done.
An example of this process in the team which won the program in Renfrewshire in 2014. For this group, the process of their ideas becoming the real thing lasted two years. This is because the experiment wasn't launched until the summer of 2016. During these two years, the team met up on a few occasions for events as well as experiment discussion sessions. The main experiment discussion session was held in 2014 when the team met with pharmacology lecturer from King's College London, Julie Keeble, who was the main scientist involved in the development of their experiment. This session took place at the University of the West of Scotland, where they spend time in the labs finding out how their experiment would be built and any changes that would need to be made to it.[10] During the period between the first meeting and the launch, the students were also invited to an event which involved astronaut Mike Foale. The students took part in the day which involved meeting with Foale and listening to the talk he gave to the prospectus students for the 2015 program.[11] These two above events were the main two events the students were involved in before their launch in the summer of 2016.[12]
This example is similar to most programs run by ISSET.
