On April 19, NASA will launch its last Space Shuttle Endeavor mission. When the shuttle returns on May 3, Heidi Mederos and Richard Sung, freshmen biology majors, will perform a series of experiments on tin crystals that the shuttle will bring back.
The students will study how crystals form and grow in space. On Earth, their formation is constrained by gravity, which causes defects in the crystals. In space, the decrease in gravity, or microgravity, allows the crystals to grow larger and with fewer defects.
Dimitri Giarikos, Ph.D., associate professor and coordinator of sciences in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences, will supervise the students.
He said, “It’s a unique opportunity because very few experiments go into space, especially now when even fewer shuttles are going into space.”
The NASA team will take samples of tin chloride and zinc to space where the astronauts will combine them to create the crystals. When they return, Giarikos and the students will analyze them and compare them to the crystals produced on Earth.
“The biggest question is how are they going to be different? We have seen in previous experiments that the crystals form better in space, but no one has seen them under an electron microscope,” said Giarikos.
The team will produce a series of crystals under different temperatures, chemical concentrations and other conditions to get a wider variety of crystals to compare to the space crystals.
Giarikos said microgravity research could benefit the biomedical and drug development fields by giving more definitive information about protein crystals. Since the crystals develop clearer in space, the information is easier to retrieve.
Barry Pearlman, principal investigator and associate lecturer, was involved in a similar experiment in 2003 when the Columbia Shuttle exploded. He asked that Giarikos and the two students be involved in the experiment.
Mederos said she had not considered conducting research during her freshman year.
“I thought it was mainly reserved for graduate or older students, so I felt privileged when Dr. Giarikos offered me the opportunity to take part in such an experiment,” she said.
Giarikos said he selected the two students from his general chemistry II honors class. He said Mederos and Sung showed that they’ve grasped the subject and had good lab results.
“I guess it pays to be good in class,” said Giarikos.
Mederos agreed.
She said research gives students the opportunity to apply what they learn in class.
“It is a valuable learning experience which makes you grow as a student and also adds a distinctive touch to your resume,” she said.
Mark Kelly, Arizona Representative Gabrielle Gifford’s husband, will command the shuttle mission in April.
