Six students from West will take part in an experiment for NASA this year.  This group of 8^th graders joined a NASA program called TechRise. They formed a TechRise Team and named it “Lunar‑Tics,”. After weeks of work in Dr. Kesley’s 8^th grade STEM class, they earned a spot as one of 60 teams across the country who will participate in the TechRise Student Challenge.

Their project focuses on a real issue NASA scientists and astronauts deal with: lunar dust. Lunar dust is made up of tiny, sharp particles that stick to almost everything and can cause equipment to malfunction. It can even be dangerous if it’s breathed in.

To help future lunar explorers, the Lunar‑Tics will design an experiment to test how well different surface coatings prevent lunar dust from sticking. Their hypothesis is that the untreated control surface will collect the most dust, while a coating treated with anti‑static spray will collect the least.

The students, with Dr. Kelsey, will meet virtually for the next 16 weeks with NASA engineers as they build their experiment in the classroom. Later this summer, their project will be sent to NASA and launched on a high‑altitude balloon that climbs between 70,000 and 95,000 feet. Once the payload returns to Earth, the team will receive all of their data to analyze.