Student experiment selected to be part of Mission 12 at International Space Station

SANGER, Calif. (KFSN) -- Four students are working on a project that will soon travel out of this world.

Their science experiment will be a part of the Mission 12 Program at International Space Station with a group of astronauts.

"They are the ones who perform the experiment with the procedures that the students send with them. And then they will send the payload back down to earth and at that time they will open it up and then collect data and analyze," said Fairmont Elementary Teacher Charlene Griesner.

Fairmont Elementary teacher Charlene Griesner learned of the program through the school's principal.

They worked with 85 teams in Sanger Unified who submitted proposals and this one was selected.

The project the effect of microgravity has on the developmental of stages of brine shrimp.

"Brine shrimp we thought were like the perfect thing because they're in a dormant phase because we needed that a well in the beginning because that's in our engineering constraint," said Griesner.

Austin Griesner is one of two Fairmont students who came up with the idea.

He says the experiment needed to be small enough to be in a tube so it could fit into the limited room on the International Space Station.

The pair seventh graders worked with a pair of mentors from Sanger High School.

"We proofread their experiment, their proposal, and their experiment design. And we helped with the measurements and we helped with going along with the process majorly for support," said Sanger High School student Elisa Rocha.

The four students will travel to Florida on June 9th for the launch of the Falcon X Space rocket and later this summer they will present their project at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.