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Emilia Dobek's interest in space and the universe started in third grade when she and her father watched a blood moon-a total lunar eclipse(月食)—outside their Skokie house, "It was just really cool how the universe can change and how something like that happens," Dobek said.
Now a seventh grader at East Prairie Elementary School, Dobek recently won the national Generation Beyond challenge by designing a space station for traveling to Mars.
Dobek competed by handing in a two-minute video where she presented her design.
"My design will not only ensure the safety of the astronauts but also make sure their comfort is out of this world," she says in her video.
Dobek's design calls for building the Mars Storage Station to store plentiful supplies. In the video, Dobek explains how her spacecraft—the Adventurer—will land in a space station. Dobek's design includes physical activity for the astronauts. Astronauts can choose their exercise machine and virtual (虚拟的) reality environment. So astronauts will be able to watch downloaded shows and even see places on Earth such as their home.
Dobek said she began her project by performing her research and then she constructed the design over three weeks to a month, working on it whenever she could including on weekends.
When Andrea Smeeton, her teacher, saw the video and her design before they were sent, she said she had a feeling she could win. "I don't know why but maybe it was the excitement and the detail in the project," Smeeton said. "I have taught for a long time and many of my students are gifted but this project was just very creative and it gave hope to a space program."
Dobek and her parents traveled to Washington D.C. in April where they learned Dobek had won. When she texted her teacher the happy result, Smeeton admitted that she cried.
"I want to tell other kids to follow their dreams." Dobek said. "Whatever they want to do, they should kind of just push for it. They should always try their best."
As we all know, science is developing faster than ever before. Recently, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly showed a photo of the orange zinnia (百日菊) online. It is the first flower to ever bloom (开花) in space and has attracted much attention all over the world. This may be the most exciting news in the field of science. The zinnia in the picture is so beautiful and looks similar to that on earth. Kelly cared for it for more than a month.
Scientists chose the zinnia flower species because it has a longer growth cycle. As a result, it can help them understand how plants flower and develop in microgravity (微重力)
"While the plants haven't grown perfectly," said Gioia Massa, the NASA science team leader, "I think we have gained a lot from this, and we are learning both more about plants and how to better operate between the ground and the station."
This was not the first time that scientists had tried to grow the zinnia in space. Other astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) began growing the colorful flowers last year. However, the zinnia leaked (渗漏) water out of the tips of the leaves. What was worse, the spread of bacteria was wrecking its growth. Kelly then took over the operation and began taking care of the zinnia as he would in his own garden.
The ISS also successfully grew red romaine lettuce in July 2015. Kelly even took a bite of the harvested plants and posted the photo. NASA's new experiment using the plant growth system will be started later. Astronauts will try to grow Chinese cabbage, dwarf tomatoes and so on.
