Payload Outreach Paper Kaitlin Russell and Andrew Smelser

The Payload subteam for the University of Alabama in Huntsville Space Hardware Club
Spaceport America Cup team has decided to engage in outreach for the payload and its related
concepts. Outreach will include the involvement of K-12 students with the payload project itself,
as well as the concepts behind it. Team members will travel to schools and teach about farming
on planets other than Earth, with an added rocketry component for high schoolers and upper
middle schoolers.

Students will learn about the Vegetable Production System (Veggie) on the International
Space Station, and the complications of growing plants in microgravity. Students will be shown
a diagram of the plant pouches used for Veggie, as well as a model created by the Outreach
team. Using materials provided by the Outreach team, students will plant their own vegetable
seed from the given options. Over the course of a few weeks, students will tend to their plants
until they start to grow. When the Outreach team returns to the school, students will evaluate
which plants grew the best. “Best” will be determined by which plant looks the healthiest, or has
produced the most edible product if given enough time. After the most viable plant is found,
students will use what they learned about farming in microgravity to design a Mars Farm that
can be either human or robot run. Students will be taught about current efforts to simulate
Martian soil and test for viability of growing plants, despite the fact that we do not truly know
how plants will grow until actual Martian soil can be obtained. From the results of students’ plant
growing tests, the most viable plant type will then be used in the actual payload launched in the
Spaceport America Cup.

For the rocketry component of the outreach curriculum, students will be taught about
basic rocketry principles and the math behind them. They will be introduced to the worlds of
both model and high power rocketry. Students will see examples of what they can do with high
power rocketry if they choose to pursue it. Using kits provided by the Outreach team, students
will be instructed and guided through putting together their very own model rocket. These
rockets will be launched after a safety briefing and flight-worthiness examination. Students will
be able to recover and keep their rockets after the launch. Rockets that have the capability to fly
a small payload will have the option of launching the seed they will be planting.

A highlight of this outreach program is its ability to be customized. While the ideal length
of time for the whole program is three days at 1.5-2 hours per day, each separated by an
appropriate length of time, teachers can work with the Outreach team to shorten the program
and emphasize what they wish to teach more of. The rocketry or Martian gardening aspects can
be removed or simplified to account for time constraints or age of the students. This makes the
program suitable for a wide range of ages and ability levels.

So far, the Outreach team has drafted lesson plans and ordered materials to perform the
outreach sessions. Presentations are being put together to teach the material. The Outreach
team has also constructed a model of a Veggie system plant packet for the students to touch
and examine.