3 Days With An Astronaut: 'Go For Launch!' Returns to Deerfield High School

DEERFIELD, IL — A space exploration science program giving students a chance to spend three days with retired astronauts and NASA staff, as well as an opportunity to create a science experiment to be launched into space, will return to Deerfield High School for a second consecutive year in March.

Former space station flight controller and astronaut instructor Michelle Lucas started the Go For Launch! program last year. It's the first project undertaken by her educational non-profit, Higher Orbits. A native of Hobart, Indiana, Lucas spent more than a decade working for NASA at Johnson Space Center in Houston before shifting her focus to education.

Lucas said her goal is to inspire the scientists and engineers of tomorrow by showing them the many opportunities in STEM-related careers. She said she was extremely lucky to be able to go to Space Camp as a kid, but most students don't have the same opportunity, so Go For Launch! aims to bring as much of that experience as possible directly to students in their hometowns.

"Not that I'm trying to turn all kids into rocket scientists," Lucas said. "Space is just a fantastic way to inspire kids about all things STEM-related."

Deerfield High School hosted the first of six different Go For Launch! events last year. As part of the program, students designed and create a science experiment, with the experiment created at DHS last June later judged the best in the country. It involved testing a new kind radiation shielding and will be sent into space later this year, Lucas said.

"Deerfield really set the stage last year," she added. The event is open to students in grades 8-12 and is not limited to DHS students.

"It isn't every day that you have a chance to learn about space from a real astronaut," said DHS Assistant Principal Joe Taylor. "You know you are on the right track when you explain the program and teenagers gasp with excitement."

Participants in this year's Go For Launch! will get to spend each of the three days of the program with Astronaut Don Thomas. He says younger kids usually are in disbelief that he has actually been to space and bemused at zero-gravity toilet technology, but older students are more interested in Thomas' career path and how he ended up becoming an astronaut.

"There was nothing like this when I was in high school," said Thomas. The nearest he was ever able to get to astronauts was at a parade, but he believes today's students are well positioned to take advantage of the opportunity the program provides.

"These kids are the next generation of rocket scientists and engineers and astronauts, and this is the generation we call the 'Mars Generation,'" with today's high-school age students the perfect age to participate in a post-2020 mission to Mars or the Moon, he said.

"I can't go there but you guys can," Thomas tells students.

There are still a couple dozen slots remaining for the March 4-6 event, but interested students must register before Feb. 21 to be guaranteed event t-shirts, Lucas said.