MIT Portugal Experiment Launched Into Space
On Wednesday, December 11, 2019 three students from the MIT Portugal Program launched their experiment into space with the help of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.
Lígia Fonseca Coelho and Manuel Almeida (both of Lisbon’s IST) and MIT Aero Astro graduate student Jeremy Stroming collaborated remotely over the course of the year to design, develop and build their nano-experiment to measure the effects of parabolic flight on the photosynthesis and survival of microorganisms. After months of emails and Skype meetings, the team met at MIT in early November to assemble and ship their hardware to Blue Origin’s Texas launch site for the much anticipated event. Congratulations to the team for winning the competition and, more importantly, successfully working together to achieve this major milestone in MIT Portugal’s history.
Learn more about the team’s journey and watch the launch in the following videos: