Lakewood High School HUNCH Project

Abstract The experiment is being flown as part of the High School Students United with NASA to Create Hardware (HUNCH) program. It was designed by the students from the Sustainable Energy/ Living class at Lakewood High School in Lakewood, Colorado. This project provides the astronauts aboard the ISS access to fresh food. The plants will be watered through a teardrop shaped hydrofuge system. In the Omega system, the plant chamber will be flooded with water by a pump. Then, after the roots have had adequate access to the water, the excess water will be removed via the pump. This excess water will then gravitate towards the smallest angle, in the bottom of the tear drop, due to surface tension and polarity. As the pump is draining the chamber, the plant will be spun to shake off water that remained on the roots. If the water sticks to the roots of the plant, the roots will rot and the plant will die. The students will observe watering systems, water removal, spinning of the centrifuge design, and efficiency of the tear drop shape.

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