RAS recognized two winners at the 2011 Metro Richmond Science Fair on Saturday, March 19.
Terry Barker made the presentation of two $50 checks to Vijay Govindarajan of Godwin High School, for his project “Developing an Alternative Earth-Based Lunar Regolith Simulant for Future Space Exploration,” and to Ashley Hedberg, also from Godwin High, for her project “On the Use of Moon Illumination as a Predictor of Barometric Pressure.”
Vijay took advantage of an intern program last summer at Langley to produce his project. He used a sample of soil from Mauna Kia, Hawaii, to see if it might serve as a more readily available source of simulated Lunar soil. This will help scientists study its effect on future landings on the moon. He used X-ray diffraction results to compare his version to known parameters of Lunar soil.
Ashley studied a piece of folklore to see if it was true that the brightness of the moon is a predictor of impending changes in barometric pressure. She did not find a correlation, but she showed some impressive work on how she went about testing the null hypothesis.
Terry Barker and Russ Hummell represented the club and made the selections.