Zero Genie

ADRIAN — The vast possibilities awaiting people in outer space came to Lenawee County for two days Friday and Saturday. 

Middle and high school students were the beneficiaries of a space exploration program called Go for Launch! Lenawee, which was at the Lenawee Intermediate School District Tech Center in Adrian and also involved a Saturday field trip across North Main Street to the PlaneWave Instruments campus. 

The two-day program, which was open to students in eighth through 12th grades throughout Lenawee County and the surrounding region, was brought to the county through the efforts of Higher Orbits, a nonprofit organization that creates experiential learning labs for secondary students across the United States with a focus on space exploration. The program is supported by the Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers Association (MAMA), state Rep. Dale Zorn, R-Onsted, Avon Machining, Cognition Science and Discovery Center, and others. 

Go For Launch! is the flagship program of Higher Orbits and highlights spaceflight and space exploration to provide students across the country the opportunity to develop and strengthen their skills in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education, teamwork, communication, research design and leadership. It is also intended to inspire and excite students about careers within the space field. 

Michelle Lucas, the founder and president of Higher Orbits was the leading instructor for both days of the registration-only class that was attended by 23 students. About half of the students were from Lenawee County, while the other half were from the Bloomfield Hills and Birmingham area in Oakland County. 

Higher Orbits is based in Colorado, but programs are operated all across the country. Go For Launch! programming is intended for everybody, Lucas said. It is not affiliated with NASA and was formed in 2015. Its first official class was in 2016. 

Since then, she said, at least 60 programs have been held and so far 13 student-made experiments have flown to space. Another five experiments will be sent to space this year, and one of them could have been made right in Lenawee County. Judging of the experiments will take place with the winners being announced sometime in mid-February.

“We have reached more than 1,500 kids at this point for our programs,” Lucas said. “We’re excited to be able to, as I put it, ‘bring space to the backyards of kids all across the country.’” 

This was the first time Higher Orbits has come to Lenawee County. It was hosted two other Go For Launch! programs in Michigan, one in Alpena and the other in Sault Ste. Marie. 

Programming introduces students to many space and science-related topics. Participants were able to learn about the science of space, how not having gravity in space changes everything, and the functions of spacesuits and spaceships. They also got to try on space equipment.  

And they got to meet former NASA astronaut Don Thomas, 67, who has been working alongside Lucas for nearly the entirety of Higher Orbits’ existence, he said. 

Thomas went on four space shuttle missions, he said. He left NASA about 15 years ago, and since then he has devoted his time to working with students. 

“I have a deep passion for space. But I also have a passion for education, and trying to inspire that next generation,” he said. “So we’re going to go to Mars. We’re going to send astronauts to Mars, and maybe 20 years from now — I’m too old for that — the astronauts going to Mars are the students that are here. This is the generation. The Mars generation.”

As an astronaut, Thomas shared with the students, he spent 44 days in space and orbited the Earth 692 times. It takes about 90 minutes to completely orbit the Earth while traveling at 17,500 mph. 

“You have no sense of speed,” he said. 

He called Michigan a “hotbed” for space exploration. 

“In two years, we’ll be putting astronauts on board and sending them to orbit around the moon. And we’re about four or five years away from having two astronauts land on the south pole of the moon,” he said. 

Part of the reason Higher Orbits brought its programming to Lenawee County was through the efforts of Zorn, who, when he was a state senator, communicated in Michigan’s Senate the opportunities the state has when it comes to being a nationwide leader for space exploration.  

Gavin Brown, executive director of MAMA, worked with Zorn and other senators to bring such programming to Michigan as an introduction to the state’s students. 

Former state Sen. Michael MacDonald, R-Macomb Twp., was in attendance at Friday’s initial day of the camp and said he and Zorn worked together in the Senate to advocate for Michigan being a front-running state in the space age. When he joined the Legislature, MacDonald said, he started an aerospace defense caucus with, at the time, Rep. Joe Tate, who is now the speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives. 

“After four years of trying to convince Michigan that we could be the epicenter of space, finally at the very end everybody started to buy in,” he said. “…I’ve never seen the excitement in the caucus as there is now. (Joe) and I hosted our last caucus and we had the biggest turnout we ever had.” 

The goal of making sure Michigan stays relevant in space talks, he said, is to keep students and future workers here in Michigan, instead of them leaving the state for work in Alabama or Texas, for instance. Plans to do so, and the discussions that have been had, have bipartisan support, MacDonald said. Both Democrats and Republicans have shown support for bringing more space awareness to Michigan. 

“We have a lot of good supporters on both sides of the aisle,” he said. “Michigan has the resources, the water and the manufacturing for being a national space hub in the United States. 

“I think in the next four years you are going to see more happen with space than even the previous years. It’s exciting. We can be the new Silicon Valley. Why can’t Detroit be at the center of all this cool stuff?” 

While a political perspective might have been on some people’s radar during the two days of space programming, the students themselves said they had a newfound appreciation for science, STEM and space. 

“We are just so lucky to be here, I think,” Kate Phelps, an eighth grader from Birmingham, said. “We get to say that we shook hands with an astronaut and we were able to try on an astronaut suit. Experiencing those things firsthand was pretty cool to me.” 

Alexis Fox, an eighth grader at Springbrook Middle School in Adrian, said one of her favorite things about the program on Friday was learning about the makeup and functions of a spaceship, including what the interior of a ship looks like. 

“It was very enjoyable. We learned a lot,” she said. “The subject matter was interesting and it really kept your attention for the whole time.” 

The program ran from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days. Lunch was provided both days, and the students were able to take home with them plenty of swag, lasting memories and an introduction into a possible career field.  

“It was much more of a fun day of school than usual,” Fox said.