STEM students reach for the stars

RATHDRUM — There are a lot of high school students who can say they were on the football team or participated in student government, said North Idaho STEM Charter Academy sophomore Joe Broder.

But Broder, and nine of his peers, are going to be the only high school students in the nation who will be able to say they launched a satellite into space before they were able to vote.

"It's pretty crazy to think that us high schoolers are going to be the first to do something, to be the first high school to send a satellite to space," Broder said.

"It's unreal," added sophomore Jessica Millard. "Just a few months ago we were brainstorming this and now we are doing it."

This week, NASA announced that North Idaho STEM Charter Academy's "Project DaVinci" was selected to participate in its CubeSat Space Mission in June 2017. The school is the only high school to be selected, and one of 20 institutions nationwide that will get to design and construct a CubeSat — a class of research spacecraft also called nanosatellites.

"All these colleges and institutions and then this little high school in North Idaho," Shay Carlock, a sophomore, said with a smile when asked how it felt to be in the same group as universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

"We're playing right up there with the big boys," said Beth Brubaker, an instructor at the academy who is serving as the educational lead for the project.

Brubaker told The Press she attended the Maker Fair in New York recently and sat in on a session about the CubeSat program, which NASA created to provide opportunities for small satellite payloads to fly on rockets during upcoming launches.

It seemed like a perfect fit to challenge students at the charter academy — a real world challenge that would require science, technology, engineering and mathematics to accomplish. So Brubaker and other instructors assembled a team of 10 students, nine sophomores and one freshmen, based on their unique backgrounds and strengths to create a proposal for "Project DaVinci."

"Project DaVinci" is, and will continue to be, led by the students themselves, Brubaker said. But the academy also assembled a powerhouse team of advisers who will be on hand to offer guidance and expertise. Those advisers include Laura Finman, a founder of the academy who has a doctorate in physics from Stanford, Brent Regan, and aeronautics pioneer Burt Rutan.

The goal of the project is to use the CubeSat, which will be approximately 4 inches long and weigh approximately 3 pounds, to send Morse code messages to schools across the world. Brubaker said the students are working to create low-cost receiver systems that will allow students to receive an inspiring message that encourages them to go into STEM careers, and challenge them to imagine and create their own space propulsion system.

"With group thinking like that, the kids will come up with some amazing creation," Brubaker said, adding that the team will also create a website that allows students who receive the message to submit their ideas.

Each member of the student leadership team will have his or her own role when it comes to making the mission a success. For example, Carlock has been assigned to serve as the project's coordinator and Broder will be in charge of Mission Control, which means ensuring things are running smoothly on the ground while the satellite is in orbit.

Other students, like sophomore Lane Robinson, are using their talents in other ways. Robinson, an accomplished fisherman, is going to use his knowledge of recruiting sponsors to make sure the project has the funding it needs to be a success.

And the fundraising isn't going to be a bake sale or car wash.

Instead, the students came up with the idea to attach an LED light system and GoPro camera to the satellite. Once the satellite is launched, the students will be able to use the LED light system to display the name of a sponsor, and the GoPro will capture an image of the name with the Earth in the background.

"You'll basically get to have a selfie in space and I think that will be pretty popular," Broder said.

The students will also be recruiting their peers to aid in the project through a formal interview process. Younger students, Brubaker said, will also work to reach out to schools around the world to create test markets that will allow the team to test the communication abilities of the CubeSat before launch.

"These 10 students will be able to write their own ticket educationally — it will look great on their college applications," Brubaker said. "They're learning not only knowledge, but systems management and long-term planning."

The gravity of the task before them is not lost on the members of the CubeSat team.

"I'm scared to death," Millard said. "This a lot bigger than anything any of us have done before. It's not like you can take it back to the classroom and make repairs."

"You don't want to mess it up," Robinson added.

The team's next step is to create a detailed plan of attack so they are able to make the launch date. They have a little more than a year to accomplish their mission, and are confident they will succeed.

"We want to show people all over the world that if they have a goal, they can use STEM to get there," Broder said.