Student space experiments

In the summer or fall of 2025, the payload aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft bound for the International Space Station (ISS) will include student scientific experiments, with help from Sally Moody ’74, Ph.D.

Students in middle schools, high schools, community colleges, and universities were eligible to participate. Moody, professor emerita of anatomy and cell biology at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, served on one of the review panels to select the best proposal from each school.

The experiments, submitted to the Student Spacecraft Experiments Program, under the auspices of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, undergo a rigorous review process. This year, 20-30 schools submitted proposals designed to answer the following question: “What physical, chemical, or biological system would I like to explore with gravity seemingly turned off for a period of time, as a means of assessing the role of gravity in that system?”

“The program administration is based in the DC area, and the officials reach out to scientists at area universities and colleges with expertise in biology, chemistry, and material sciences,” Moody said. Moody was first invited to review student proposals for the program in 2015 and has served on the review panel most years since. She is well suited for the task. “For the past 40 years, I have been running a research laboratory, first at the University of Virginia and then at the George Washington University, and teaching medical and graduate students,” said Moody. “Our research has focused on defining the genes that are required for proper nervous system and craniofacial development.” While Moody retired from academia in 2023, she continues to review scientific manuscripts for journals, work on editorial boards, and review grant applications for funding agencies.

For the student proposals, Moody said, “Each entry was judged on the significance of the question to be asked, the experiment’s feasibility in the constraints of the flight hardware, appropriate astronaut interaction—no more than 120 seconds per day—safety, and, of course, the ability of the student team to communicate.” For the last metric, writing skills were considered.

Once launched, the experiments will be on board the ISS for four to six weeks before being returned to earth. It will then be up to the students to evaluate the results of their experiments.