The (semi)Grand Unboxing

Well, the semester is finally over, and Julius and I are still breathing. Today, we were finally able to open the samples from the air balloon! Firstly, let's take a look at the control.

Like several of our samples, the research balloon control was plagued by mold, and is completely dried out and irrecoverable. Keep this in mind when viewing the rest of our results.

Now, on to the experiment!

When we opened the cube we were met with two things: mold and, surprisingly, slime. Yes, slime.

Interestingly similar to our sounding rocket cube, one sample was destroyed by mold, while the other seems to be mold-free. The moldy sample, on the left, was completely dried out, and there appeared to be some sort of black mold on one end. This was relatively expected, but the second sample was what truly surprised us. It appeared to be unaffected by mold, but the pad was rotten. There were remnants of the interior structure and skin, but the meat had turned to a slime-like consistency. Due to the fact that it was unaffected by mold, and the that it was still in the early stages of decomposition and still retaining some moisture, We hypothesize that the pad could have been killed by the radiation it was exposed to during its flight in space, but there are several other factors that could have caused its decomposition.

Since both of our samples are irrecoverable, the research balloon experiment ends here. However, we have learned that mold is more prevalent of a problem than we had earlier anticipated, killing  half of our samples, and that although hardy, Texas prickly pear cactus cannot survive radiation.

Launch! 2.0

Ladies and gentlemen, the research balloon has launched! Unfortunately, Julius and I were in class while it was launching, so we could not watch it live, but Cubes in Space has some awesome pictures of the launch that I want to share with y'all.

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