Broward College a frequent flyer in NASA space program

Broward College regularly cooks up experiments that are out of this world — literally.

Students will spend this semester preparing equipment for rocket mission sponsored by NASA, continuing what has become two decades of tradition for the college.

“Twenty years ago they told us there was no way that a community college would get something on the space shuttle and we didn’t believe them,” said Professor Rolando Branly. “We worked hard and we did it.”

The college’s projects take flight about every two years, paid for by NASA as a way to advance space exploration and stoke the private market for rocket-powered vehicles.

“I was amazed that just being in college I would be able to do something like this,” said engineering student Daniel Macaya.

Branly said the college always tries to plant seeds for the greater scientific community to build from. Their first mission — concocted after many long nights of calculous lessons over pizza — involved sending vials of DNA to space to predict how space radiation affects astronauts and plants.

Another mission involved sending up liquids to study their movement in zero gravity.

Both of those missions have contributed to research and innovation within the larger scientific community, Branly said.

This time, his students will set out to make space exploration from the ground more affordable. They’ll do this by measuring the concentration of hydroxide, a gas created from water vapor, that hovers in the middle layer of Earth’s atmosphere.

The gas blocks some visibility for scientists trying to explore space on land. Knowing the concentration of the gas will help them better calibrate their instruments for more precise measurements, rather than having to depend on expensive satellite missions, Branly said.

And that gets to the heart of Branly’s mission: creating opportunity for more budding scientists and engineers. Many of his students are somewhat interested in the fields but unsure whether to make a career out of it, he said.

Getting them linked to NASA can get them a lot more interested than just reading textbooks.

“If you want students to engage in the science and tech fields, you have to get them to be full participants, not spectators,” Branly said. “When they are involved in this, it’s not just an abstract homework.”

The students’ experiment will launch in the first half of 2018. The college pitched the project with the Silicon Valley Space Center, an aerospace business on the West Coast.

Twice a year, a NASA panel picks about five to 13 projects out of 25 proposals for liftoff.

The agency pays pays private companies to take the experiments aboard their spacecraft, said Stephan Ord, the Flight Opportunities program technology manager at NASA.

Some of the private companies ultimately plan to take people to space for tourism aboard their vessels.

cmcglade@sun-sentinel.com, 954-356-4528 or Twitter @caitmcglade

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