The MIDD has been collaborating with Glen Hills Middle School teacher Lalitha Murali and her students supported by the iEDU program Cubes in Space. This program is for non-university students to conduct suborbital scientific and engineering research.
The purpose of the experiment was to determine if the novel asthma drug (MIDD0301) will be available for humans in space. Space radiation can have an influence on the stability drugs and render them ineffective. We would like to investigate if the chemical composition of MIDD0301 will be altered through space travel.
Solid MIDD0301 was placed in a plastic tube and sealed. The tube was placed into a cube that fit into a dedicated space of the rocket. Students were invited to be part of the Flightfest at Chincoteague Island, Virginia to see MIDD0301 lifting off into space using a Sounding Rocket-10 at the NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. After the rocket return to earth, the cube with MIDD0301 was send back to Milwaukee for chemical analysis. Therefore, several student visited UWM on September 19th. The purity and mass identification was carried out at SAILARC, the analytical laboratory of the MIDD.
The test concluded that no degradation occurred by space radiation and was still 98% pure. The mass analysis showed also no decomposition. In addition, we analyzed MIDD0301 by nuclear magnetic resonance. We are proud to work with the next generation of scientists and hope that UWM can play a bigger role in the science education of Milwaukee’s middle and high school students.