Medford Fifth Grade Student Named Semi-Finalist In NASA Competition

MEDFORD, MA – Medford fifth grader, Robert “Robbie” Perry, was selected as a semi-finalist in a NASA STEM competition.

Perry was one of 45 students from across the country in grades kindergarten through twelfth named semi-finalists for essays on radioisotopes.

As part of the Power to Explore Challenge, students were asked to plan a mission to the solar system or beyond, and describe where they would go and what they would explore.

Students were asked to first learn about Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) – a type of nuclear “battery” that has enabled many spacecrafts to explore some of the harshest, darkest, and farthest-reaching environments of our solar system, according to NASA – and then envision a RPS-powered space mission that would energize their space exploration dreams.

For his project, titled “DEEP” (Drilling Enceladus Exploration Project), Perry would go to Enceladus – a moon of Saturn – to drill under the ice and search for hydrothermal vents, and take water samples.

Read more of Perry's submission below:

The lander will be launched by an Atlas V rocket and powered by a Radioisotope Power System (RPS) which in order to reach Saturn will do gravity assists around Venus and Jupiter. It will take seven years to get to Saturn.

DEEP will take pictures of the surface and analyze the samples. DEEP will use thrusters on its side to ensure a smooth landing, without damaging the onboard systems. The drill will have a sample collector that retracts into the lander, then studies the samples to see if life could be possible. The RPS will also help heat the spacecraft in the cold of the outer solar system. The samples will be analyzed onboard with the data transmitted back to earth.

“I am very focused and interested when working on a project, with a particular passion on space topics, and I think that would help with mission success,” Perry wrote in his challenge submission.