Apples in space: Wapato High kids will return to Texas, conduct tests with NASA

YAKIMA - Last spring, Wapato High School students had an opportunity of a lifetime – testing an experiment of their design in zero-gravity conditions and touring Houston’s Johnson Space Center.

Now they are headed back to Houston to update NASA on their progress.

As part of a three-year partnership with a NASA program for students, about a half-dozen Wapato students leave for Texas on Wednesday to answer the question: Can gases alone slow the deterioration of fresh apples in micro-gravity, or do other elements such as temperature play a role?

Last year, the Wapato team designed a miniature of a cold-storage unit intended to keep fresh produce from rotting while aboard the International Space Station or other spacecraft.

This year, students designed simple 11-gallon apple storage containers in which various mixes of gases can be pumped in. While one control box contains a mix similar to the air we breathe – almost 80 percent nitrogen, 20 percent oxygen and a minuscule percentage of carbon dioxide – students will be able to tinker with the mix of gases placed in other containers.

“We put the apples in the boxes to see if they remain better, fresher and last longer at room temperature,” said senior student Chris Ninatanta.

The team selected the cold-storage experiment last year because several of the students had ties to the Yakima Valley’s agricultural community and knew several growers using cold-storage facilities to store apples.

Last April, about a dozen of the 30 students who had worked on the cold-storage unit to some extent traveled to the Johnson Space Center. They were one of a select few school groups in the country – and the only one from the West – selected as a NASA partner for HUNCH, a school-based program to promote interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

They toured the facility, attended a ceremony honoring the schools and visited Houston-area college campuses.

The main focus, though, involved testing their experiments under NASA’s roof. Four of the students, for instance, tested their experiment aboard a zero-gravity plane and tested the cold-storage chamber in a micro-gravity environment. Others were stationed at ground level to gather data from the aerial experiment.

Unfortunately, budget issues at NASA forced the agency to discontinue using zero-gravity flights as part of the HUNCH program.

But there’s a chance the Wapato experiment could be sent to the International Space Station, said project adviser and high school science teacher Chris Beyrouty.

That possibility may be a couple of years away, but a strong prototype from his team could be sent because astronauts have a high interest in fresh fruit, he said.

While astronauts get adequate nutrition, the International Space Station gets shipments of fresh fruit only on a quarterly basis.

“There’s just something about sinking your teeth into an apple,” Beyrouty said.