Hoboken High School Students' Space Project Chosen To Head To International Space Station

HOBOKEN, NJ — Two Hoboken High School juniors' gravity experiment — "The effect of microgravity on catheter biofilm formation by the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens" — has been selected for flight about the International Space Station.

In essence, it looks at how microgravity affects the formation of harmful bacteria on life-saving medical equipment.

If you still can't grasp that, Kai Hultstrom and Feline Dirkx could explain it to you.

Last year, they and other students from Hoboken High School began participating in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) Mission 16 to the International Space Station (ISS).

The students worked in teams to design a question, conducted research, communicated with professional advisors in the field, performed experiments, and collected and analyzed their data.

Three of the proposals were submitted to the National Step 2 Review Board conducted by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE).

This past December, Nanoracks performed a preliminary review of the flight experiments to ensure they met the safety requirements for the flight.

"We are thrilled to announce that 11th grade students, Kai Hultstrom and Feline Dirkx's project has been selected for flight aboard the International Space Station!" announced the district Thursday. "This study will be launched in spring/summer 2022. The reviewers were impressed by the study's 'elegant and straightforward' experimental design."

The scientific question that these two budding researchers assigned for their study was "Does a microgravity environment affect the biofilm growth of Pseudomonas fluorescens?”

Their hypothesis is that if Pseudomonas fluorescens is exposed to a microgravity environment, then biofilm growth will accelerate. Biofilms are harmful secretions made by microorganisms that can often block catheters and interfere with other medical devices in a clinical setting. A catheter is a tube used to deliver medications and fluids to patients.

For their experiment, they will set up identical tubes, inoculated with this microorganism, with a section of catheter submerged in a growth medium. They will be able to assess the amount of biofilm growth by using both a spectrophotometer as well as visual analysis.

They designed an experiment, which makes perfect use of the fluids mixing enclosure (FME) device "mini-lab system" which will be sent to space and manipulated by an astronaut aboard the ISS. The same experiment will be run at Hoboken High School, so a direct comparison of biofilm growth can be made.

"Congratulations to all of our participants in this amazing program, and especially Kai and Feline," said the school. "We look forward to watching and learning about your project’s outcomes in the future."

The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program [or SSEP] is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in the U.S. and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education internationally. It's enabled through a strategic partnership with Nanoracks LLC, which is working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory.

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