Higher education: Go for Launch program aims to inspire students

Michelle Lucas, founder of Higher Orbits Go for Launch, has worked at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and made her reputation preparing people for space flight. She traveled the world teaching people how to live on board the International Space Station.

But the satisfaction she received from that job is nothing compared to thrill of seeing a new generation get interested in space flight.

“Don’t get me wrong, training astronauts for space was fulfilling, but being able to prepare the next generation is a next level of fulfillment,” Lucas said. 

That’s what she and her team were aiming for April 26 and 27 at the Colorado Space Port near Watkins. The space port hosted the Go for Launch Higher Orbits event, a special STEM program, for 35 Denver-area middle and high school students.

Lucas said it’s incredibly fulfilling to inspire the next generation of space enthusiasts, especially for kids that don’t have access to these kinds of opportunities.

Post-its, tape and teamwork

The students learned about teamwork, communication, technology, leadership, science, engineering and brainstorming during the two day program. Their tasks include working as teams to create a tower made of paper stable enough to support the miniature NASA Orion Capsule placed on top. Each tower was tested with a small fan to assess its strength. 

Global Village Academy’s Colton Burke, Prospect Ridge Academy’s Eshaan Valles and Colorado Skies Academy students Yiri Yerikanis, and Zach Schultz worked as a team.

The group of 8th grade students brainstormed how to best build their tower, each participating with structural engineering concepts and feeding off each other for inspiration. 

Their final tower was made of Post-its, paper and some tape with room for the Orion Capsule on top.  Their project was tested for strength, and they won first place. Not only that, but they had fun doing it.

That’s the goal, Lucas said. Being able to create something that she can bring to the backyards of students across the country is so meaningful to her. 

Dreams of space

The impact is huge, according to Robert Ferguson from Westminster Public Schools’ Random Innovation Center. He teaches the aviation engineering pathway, including drone classes, pilot training, engineering design, aviation electronics, and aerospace. 

“I’m excited about the new opportunities for the next generation and am looking forward to seeing their progress and achievements at the Colorado Air and Space Port,” Ferguson said. “I’ve had students who have gone on to be airplane mechanics, training as pilots, and some have gone to the military, or the School of Mines, Metropolitan State University, and Colorado State University.”

Lucas said that since she was a little girl, she dreamed of working in the space industry, and had the privilege of doing that after she graduated.

“I worked at Johnson Space Center variety of different jobs with the International Space Station. I was part of the payload safety review panel,” Lucas said. “I was a flight controller and mission control, and then I was a technical instructor for astronauts and other instructors.”

After 12  years, commercial space started to take off, so she decided to leave NASA and start her own consulting company.

“I did some work for a nonprofit internationally. We launched Higher Orbits, a nonprofit. It’s our 10th anniversary. We’ve conducted 84 programs in 21 states, impacting over a thousand students.” 

Space loomed large in Capt. Wendy Lawrence’s imagination, too. Lawrence was an astronaut with four space shuttle missions under her belt, including the Astro Two mission to the Russian Space Station Mir. 

Lawrence said she grew up reading about the Mercury or Gemini space programs, but as Apollo started, she was in front of her black and white televisions at home.  

“Most of us had not migrated to color yet, and we were enthralled, amazed by what we saw. For me, it was Apollo 11 watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon,” Lawrence said. “I just knew at that moment, I wanted to ride a rocket and have a chance to find space.”

Lawrence said Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics programs, also known as STEM or STEAM, are an opportunity for the students to take what they have been learning in school and apply it to a particular challenge, coming up with an idea for an experiment that could be on the International Space Station.

“It’s their opportunity to apply knowledge and education they acquired, giving them experience that they can go on and take on challenges and be successful.”

Elizabeth Balga, another volunteer for the program, works as a senior human systems integration engineer and flight operations engineer at Sierra Space in Colorado. 

She worked on the Dream Chaser program, which is a cargo vehicle designed to bring payloads to the International Space Station. 

Balga said she was inspired by Space flight since she was a little girl and was enamored with everything in science, space, and technology in her classes. 

“This age range is where kids are trying to decide what they want to do with the rest of their lives, and allowing them to learn about space, but also STEM and space, everything it takes to go into space,” Balga said. 

“It’s science, technology, engineering, art, and math. There are also biology and aviation paths that are part of the greater aerospace realm,” Balga said. “As a kid, I didn’t have a lot of these opportunities to learn about aerospace. I would have loved to go to a ‘Go for Launch’ as a kid.”

Go for Launch volunteer Sonia Morales also works as a modeling and simulations engineer at the Aerospace Corporation. 

“I’ve been looking for other opportunities to give back to students, to inspire them. I found out about Go for Launch asking for volunteers, and I was very excited to volunteer,” Morales said.