Monday March 10 was an exciting day for the three Astronomy classes at Dutch Fork High School (DFHS). They were visited by CEO Rob Quigley of New Ascent Aerospace and got to participate in the company’s educational aerospace program “Mission Subspace”. Quigley flew in from Maryland to guide the students through this hands-on experience. Quigley is a former NASA engineer who has worked on the Hubble telescope as well as James Webb Space telescope and is currently working with a company that launched and landed a probe on the south pole of the moon back in early March.
Mission subspace was originally test piloted by several schools three years ago including the astronomy classes of Irmo High School under the instruction of J.M. Cameron. Cameron who is also a New Ascent Ambassador brought Mission subspace to DFHS this year and ran the program with his current Astronomy students. Mission Subspace is a program where students track the data from five spark chips that were shot into subspace and descended into the desert of New Mexico. While the students were tracking this data on their school issued Chromebooks, Mission control back in Maryland was guiding the students through the process assisted by Quigley at the school. The students were able to track data such as acceleration of the chips, air temperature, pressure and a host of other parameters as the chips descended. It was an incredible experience for the students in real life aerospace technology. They look forward to hosting New Ascent Aerospace again in the coming years.
Feature Photo: J.M. Cameron and Rob Quigley of New Ascent Aerospace.
