Members of the NDA Deep Space Satellite Club gather around a computer in Gregory Tucker's classroom.

Martin L. Nesbitt, Jr. Discovery Academy (NDA) students won a grant that will help them send an experiment high into the atmosphere aboard a NASA balloon.
 
The school’s Deep Space Satellite Club is one of only 60 high school teams to receive funding from the 2022 NASA TECHRISE Student Challenge. They will use the $1,500 grant to test different plastics for their ability to block UVC light, an energetic type of ultraviolet light that poses a serious risk to high altitude and space flight missions. In the early summer, their experiment will ride into the stratosphere aboard a NASA test flight balloon, where they’ll be able to collect data about the effectiveness of their different test materials.
 
“We’re going to have four plastics, one glass, and one control,” said sophomore club member Mitchell Cohen. “Sensors behind the materials will test how effective they are at blocking UVC light at high altitudes.”

The project incorporates the full spectrum of learning opportunities offered at NDA, said club sponsor and science teacher Gregory Tucker.

“It’s biology and earth science, coding, electronics, engineering,” he said. “It’s a perfect STEM project that lets them combine all these different fields into their own design. That’s really exciting to watch.”
 
While many other grantees had months to submit their winning proposals, NDA’s crew found out about the TECHRISE challenge just a few days before the proposal due date, making their successful application even more impressive. They’ll spend the next several weeks tweaking their design and getting direct feedback from NASA engineers before the scheduled balloon flight in June.
 
“None of us really expected it to happen,” said junior club member Liam Murray.
“And the fact that we’re able to work with NASA is extra cool. We’re all very happy.”
 
This isn’t the Deep Space Satellite Club’s first partnership with NASA. In November, a space weather experiment designed by an earlier club cohort became the only high school experiment aboard the Artemis I mission.
 
Check out coverage of this story from WYFF Channel 4 in Greenville. View more photos on Facebook and Instagram.