Rain, Rain, go Away; We Want to Launch our Science Experiment!

Unfortunately, the launch of the research balloon has been postponed due to rain, but the good news is that Cubes in Space sent Julius and me some awesome pictures of the payload!

We think that our experiment is in compartment "C 2."

Off to the balloon!

So Far, So Good

Weekly Update #3

This week has been relatively uneventful. All of the samples are doing well, and we have started giving them a little bit more water. Also, sometime next week we will move them to a sunnier location.
Make sure to mark your calendars, because the research balloon launch is this Monday! It appears that there will not be a livestream of the launch, but I will keep y'all updated on the experiment's progress.

Thank you for reading!

-Edith

'Twas a dark and rainy week...

Weekly Update #2

Not much happened this week. The weather has been unusually rainy for Texas, but the cacti seem to be doing well. We have been keeping them out of the rain so we can control how much water they are getting. Julius has been great at watering them about 1/8 of a cup of water every other day. (Thank you!)

In other news, according to the CiS website, the balloon launch has been postponed until the 29th. It also looks like there will not be a livestream of the launch.

Thank you for reading!

-Edith

Our First Week with the Cactus from Space

Weekly Update #1

The past week has been chock- full of excitement, and Julius and I are very exited to see how our experiment will progress from here.

This week we:

Received our Cactus experiment form our teacher,

and were thrilled to see how well the cactus samples survived space travel.

This warranted a celebration!

Two days later, we put the cacti into pots...

...with a special potting mix for cactus.

Then, we slowly started introducing them to light,

and began to water them.

Finally, Julius and I received a letter from the Governor of Texas!

The cacti samples seem to be recovering well, and are barely phased by the Texas heat. We will keep y'all updated to any major events, and I will be writing posts like this once a week with lots of photos  to show the cactus' progress.

Thank you for reading!

-Edith

A Letter from the Governor's Office

Yesterday, Julius and I received an awesome surprise in the mail. A letter from the Governor of Texas! Julius and I are awed by how much support we are receiving for a project that started as "a crazy idea," and I hope that we will live up to your expectations!

Thank you for reading!

-Edith

Good Morning, Cactus!

They all look like normal cactus cuttings, but two of them have been to SPACE!

Yesterday, Julius and I put our cactus samples into pots! With the help of  Mr. Ryan C. from our local Lowes, we settled on some special potting soil, and these adorable terra cotta pots!

In our original proposal we had planned to use some soil from the area around the "Mother Cactus," but we amended this plan for several reasons, the main reason being that we have no clue what is in our local soil, and when we send our research to NASA it would be better if we can point them to something that has a well documented composition. That being said, there is another reason. A very scaly, scary, venomous reason.
When Julius and I were packing the cubes in May, we decided to get some extra pictures of the mother cactus for the blog. After a while I looked up from my camera to see Julius nearly step back onto a long tan "thing." That thing promptly MOVED, coiled up under a tree, and started RATTLING. Ah, Texas is just full of friendly critters! Needless to say, we ran one way, and the rattlesnake ran (slithered?) in the other.
After that, Julius, our teacher, and I decided that stomping through tall grass to dig underneath a giant cactus in the middle of the summer was not the best idea I had ever had...

Thank you for reading!

-Edith

E.T. Cactus

Yesterday, Julius and I unpacked, measured, weighed and photographed the cactus that went to space! We had loads of fun, and we were surprised how well the cactus stood up to space travel.

First, we sterilized a plate, scale, and two pairs of tweezers with rubbing alcohol, and put down some paper towels to protect our work-surface.

Then, we admired the awesome NASA logo on the experiment cube, and weighed the cube. It was 3 grams lighter than when we shipped it off!

Next, we got to crack it open!

We proceeded to slowly extricate the pieces of cactus from the gravel. I can hardly believe that this gravel, which came from my backyard, has been to space! COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Enter a frowning Julius)

"Edith, this is a serious science project! We need to act professional."

Ahem... right. ANYWAY,

The first piece of cactus we pulled out surprised us. Part of it was, as we had been dreading, rotten. But the rest of the piece was in good condition, and we are confident that this piece can be salvaged. However, the second piece of cactus blew us away.

This piece of cactus is in near PERFECT condition! After three months, over 3,000 miles of travel, and a trip to space, this piece of cactus looks almost exactly the same as when we shipped it.

A picture of this piece of cactus from 3 months ago.

A picture of this piece of cactus from YESTERDAY.

  Julius and I are thoroughly exited about how well this piece of cactus handled space travel, and there may or may not have been a declaration of "It Liiiiiives!" that would rival any Frankenstein movie.

The two cactus samples are now stored in a dark box, so we can slowly reintroduce them to light, and we are looking forward to the next phase of our experiment!
 Until then, we can celebrate the successful return of our Texas Prickly Pear cactus!

Thank you for reading!

-Edith

"The Uber Sciencey Post" (A.K.A. the report for our teacher)

... As delivered by Dr. Tony the Cat, because cute cats make everything more interesting. :-)

We Have The Green Light, or Rather, A Green Cactus.

We are ready to move on to the next phase of our experiment, and our results so far have greatly exceeded our expectations.

Today we unpacked, measured, weighed, sorted, photographed, and re-packaged the cacti from the sounding rocket experiment cube and its control.

The control, although moldy, is not only still alive, but has started growing roots.

The two pieces of cactus that went to space have returned relatively unscathed. One has a spot that is rotting, and the other is in perfect condition. Both possess a vibrant green color, and we have high hopes for being able to revive all of the samples.

These results are much better than we had anticipated, as we had expected the cactus to be completely brown and dormant upon arrival. This places us slightly ahead of schedule, and puts us in a position to slowly reintroduce the samples to light over the upcoming week.

We will  post a more detailed report tomorrow, that will have pictures documenting the steps we took while unpacking the cactus, and provide some of our hypotheses for the changes we observed in the samples.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Edith and Julius

We Haz The Precious!

*The above use of "Teen Grammar" haz has been approved by our teacher ;-)

A really cool sticker that CiS sent us along with our experiment cube.

Today Julius and I went to get our experiment cube! It is finally here! We don't have enough time to open it today, but we will get to it as soon as possible, and there will be MANY pictures!

Thank you for reading!

-Edith