LA County Girl Scouts’ projects are ready to soar to space station aboard SpaceX rocket – Long Beach Press Telegram

There was a time when females didn’t go into space. That, of course, has changed and today, there are young girls out there with dreams of doing just that.

Indiana, a girl scout who lives in South Pasadena, is one of them. She won’t be going to space herself this weekend — but her project is blasting off.

Indiana and four other Southern California scouts were among the winners of the inaugural “Making Space for Girls” contest sponsored by the Girl Scouts of Citrus Council in Florida, the nonprofit SpaceKids Global and Houston-based ProXops and L2 Aerospace. (The Girls Scouts do not allow the girls’ actual full names to be released, to assure their privacy and safety.)

In the wee hours of Saturday morning, their ideas and projects will be part of a space launch on SpaceX CRS23 headed to the International Space Station from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

There were 680 contest entries from 95 Girl Scouts councils, 46 states, two territories and two countries. They were challenged to create a design for the “Making Space for Girls” mission patch, write an essay on their space dreams and the future of space travel or propose an idea for an experiment.

Twenty-one winning entries were selected by a panel of prestigious space industry professionals.

Indiana, who loves art and science, used markers, paper and her father’s iPad to create her winning idea that also earns her a space badge for her uniform vest.

“I think I will probably definitely go to space,” she said in an email. “But I may be an architect, too. And own a cafe. And be a singer. I can do anything I put my mind to. My mama says that.”

The unusual thing about Indiana’s girl scout experience for the past 18 months is that she hasn’t physically met any of the other girls in her troop in person.

“We do it all online because of COVID,” she wrote. “But I love my troop and my leaders are so funny and smart. Can you believe astronauts know me?”

Indiana teamed up with her friend, Golda, in designing a colorful space badge for the contest.

It has an astronaut in the center wearing a helmet so “she can breathe in space” along with planets and a rocket ship.

Golda, a kindergartener who lives in Glendale, joined the Daisy troop this year on Zoom and looks forward to the day she can meet her counterparts in person.

“I like making up stories about space,” Golda wrote in an email. “I made a story about Lelo. She is a moon fairy who comes out when it’s the half moon. I like to look at the moon and see what shape it is. I think I would like to visit the moon and other planets.”

Kayla of Rolling Hills Estates was also among the local winners. She started as a Daisy scout in first grade and in one day wrote a story about a character she named Nick Raven and his visit to space.

“People mispronounce my last name as Nick Raven, so I made a character called Nick Raven and wrote a story about him and his friends,” Kayla wrote in an email. “This was a new adventure for them.”

Now that she is an award-winning space project-maker she’s feeling pretty proud of herself, she said.

“I don’t want to be a scientist, but I want to go to space,” Kayla wrote. “I want to be a baker and a writer.”

Milan, who lives in the San Gabriel Valley, wanted to learn how the sun affects a plant’s foliage depending on its proximity to the sun. She was curious if the plant would grow faster when the International Space Station is on the side of Earth that is closer to Venus or when it is closest to Mars.

Her goal was to develop useful information to combat climate change and help determine how food sources could be adapted if humans were to ever colonize other planets.

The result was the creation of a fully contained box she had drawn that allows the astronauts to water the planet without ever opening it.

“I love space and I was really excited to think of what an astronaut could experiment on,” Milan wrote in an email. “Since I read a lot about other experiments already conducted in space, I wanted to think of something that hasn’t been done before. I love plants and thought about life on earth.”

Milan, who traveled to Florida to watch the launch in real time, has her eye on the future. She says she will continue to learn about different galaxies, stars and nebulas.

“I want to be a NASA scientist in the future and I can’t believe that an idea of mine is already going to be launched into space!,” she wrote. “Winning this contest makes me want to pursue a career in science even more and I know I can do it!”

Milan has earned many patches over five years, but the Making Space for Girls patch is the most exciting one, she said

“It means a lot to me, because it reminds me that a simple idea I had could turn into something so big,” she wrote. “I never imagined I would get to watch an idea of mine be launched into space. Every time I look at it, I remind myself that I can do something I put my mind to.”

Becoming a Scout has opened a lot of doors for her and she has done many things she never would not have done before.

“It has taught me how to set and meet my goals, be more confident, and how to be helpful to others,” she said. “I am proud to also be a top cookie seller within our Council and two years in a row, I sold more than 2,000 boxes of cookies! But winning this contest has been the best part about being a Girl Scout!”

Jordan, a 12-year-old from Canyon Country, also traveled to Florida to watch the launch.

The winning project she proposed was to determine if lavender essential oil diffused in microgravity has the same effect on people as it does on Earth.

“I wanted to release lavender essential oil scent into the air in the Faraday Box on the ISS and have a raspberry pi measure the particles in the air and compare it with lavender essential oil particles in a Faraday box on Earth,” Jordan wrote. “I use essential oils on a daily basis to help with things like sleep and energy, which is why I chose to make my experiment about them.”

The scientists took Jordan’s idea to study plants that can hopefully provide natural healthcare options for astronauts and future space travelers.

“They combined my idea with girls who wanted to study plants grown in microgravity for use as food and as renewable energy sources and they designed a study to see how tomato, lemongrass and pepper seeds germinate on the ISS,” Jordan wrote.

In Girl Scouts, young women of every age learn about science, technology, engineering, the arts and math to help them see how they can actually improve the world whether they’re discovering how a car’s engine runs, learning to manage finances or caring for animals.

“What a thrilling way for our girls to see that space exploration and technology are accessible and rewarding,” said Theresa Edy Kiene, CEO, Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles in a prepared statement. “Participating in MS4G has inspired our girls to pursue passions in STEM, which is foundational to the Girl Scout leadership experience. I am so proud of each of them and can’t wait to see what this inspires.”

All of the girls’ submissions will be returned to them once they return to Earth and processed by NASA as certified flown-in-space items.