Rehan Dost ’26 Presents Research at Student Spaceflight Experiments Program National Conference

Rehan Dost ’26 and a few students from other schools were recently invited to present their team’s research at the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) National Conference. This annual conference is held by The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education and provides an opportunity for select student researchers to present their projects to the wider scientific community. This year’s attendees included astronauts, scientists, college researchers, and NASA employees working with the International Space Station (ISS).

In 2022, their team was one of the nationwide SSEP competition winners, which allowed them to send an experiment to the ISS on a rocket for 45 days. Their project tested whether cyanobacteria behave differently in a microgravity environment. Cyanobacteria produce hydrogen and oxygen, which could possibly be used as rocket fuel. Following the project, they will attempt to further the rocket fuel output of the bacteria by including different conditions.