Student Spaceflight Experiments Program Page:
The SD43 SSEP community invites all students, K-12, to participate in designing a Mission Patch. Mission patches have been part of human spaceflight since the days of Project Mercury in the 1960s. The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program [SSEP] Mission Patch Competition therefore allows communities to engage in another authentic aspect of the space program.
Proposal Title:
Reducing Plastic in Space using the Plastic eating Fungus: Pestalotiopsis Microspora
Summary:
Waste products are difficult to store or discard within space. Especially that most of the spacecrafts designed have limited space and weight requirements. By acquiring a fungus named Pestalotiopsis Microspora, trash made of polyurethane plastics can be digested as its primary food source. For example, the Leonardo Module, which holds waste for the ISS, can take less volume with the contribution of the fungus. The results due to the SSEP experiment can offer answers to whether this way of reducing waste is viable. The main factors that will be recorded from the experiment will include the amount eaten, speed, and its survivability.