Project RAES

The research that our 2022 NASA SLI team developed was called RAES (Research Atmospheric and Environmental Sustainability).  This payload was carried on-board the rocket and collected various atmospheric conditions during the flight profile.  This data could then be compared to that of other known environments to contrast the different environments' potential to sustain different life forms.  

In our project, our team is developing technology that will collect data on commercially on atmospheric bio factors and use them to determine the sustainability of various forms of life in a given environment based on the atmosphere.  As such, our team is developing this technology using certain commercially available hardware components, as well as developing our own algorithm which will perform the analysis of the data collected.  Additionally, our team will compare the data collected during flights at various geographical locations in order to determine the variance in the sustainability for life in two different geographical locations on the same planet--Earth.  

Our payload was designed for two primary reasons, the first of which is thanks to the team members' curiosity to explore the atmosphere and life sustainability.  In the modern world, where changes in environmental conditions are shaping to be more crucial than ever before, the team believed that this would be an appropriate and relevant experiment to carry out.  Secondly, part of the SLI Program in general is for students to develop technology and conduct research just as NASA engineers, such as those working in the Artemis Program, do.  Since current NASA efforts are concentrated on finding how to maintain human life on planets such as Mars for extended missions of exploration, we found this research project as contributing to current NASA efforts as well.