March 17, 2023, GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A second team of Grand Rapids Community College students was named a finalist in a NASA competition, and will pitch a plan to create edible packaging for astronauts.
Abby Tichelaar and Cole Herring, from GRCC's Launch U Middle College Engineering and Mechanical Design Program, will head to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to present their project in front of NASA researchers, engineers, and flight doctors on April 19. Launch U is a partnership with the Kent Intermediate School District.
They will join GRCC culinary students who earlier in the week were named finalists for a competition to send a meal to the space station.
Tichelaar and Herring’s project is part of the NASA HUNCH program in the Health and Biomedical Science category, focusing on the needs for NASA's future exploration missions and are part of NASA's Human Research Program.
They created an edible cargo transfer box that will hold nutrition bars, and at the end of its life cycle, the container can be upcycled into an edible solution, such as gummy bears, recycled, or downcycled into plastic components. The interdisciplinary project’s goal is eliminating waste on space missions, where space on aircraft is at a premium.
The project passed a preliminary design review in January and a critical design review in February. They were named finalists late Thursday.
Tichelaar and Herring will join culinary students Katie Bird and Devon Vanderwall, who are among 10 finalists competing to send a meal to the International Space Station, with a cookoff planned for April 20.
The Secchia Institute is partnering with the Ottawa Area Intermediate School District’s Careerline Tech Center, with students Bird and Vanderwall preparing a recipe of Austrian style steak soup.
Both teams are coached by Dr. Werner Absenger, Secchia Institute’s program director, and Chef Jennifer Struik, an instructor in the program.
The team has been working since early September, using nutritional guidelines from NASA and a research project looking at how foods affect astronauts in low gravity.