India Ratha ’27 and Josh Lecuyer ’25 send experiments to International Space Station
Ratha and Lecuyer also supported the spaceflight preparation work of Jithran Ekanayake ’20 this summer.
This month, India Ratha ’27 and Josh Lecuyer ’25 had experiments sent to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard SpaceX-31. They supported the spaceflight preparation work of Jithran Ekanayake ’20 this summer and helped run an adaptive laboratory evolution sequence to adapt a bioplastic producing bacteria to flight hardware. Ratha and Lecuyer also helped baseline work, including using Earth-based partial gravity simulators to characterize the effects of variable gravity on the fitness and productivity of the bacteria.
“I’m fairly sure they’re the first Carleton students who, while still undergrads, have helped set up a payload that was flown to the ISS,” Ekanayake said. “The experiments are currently in orbit and will remain in space for about a month.”
Just like with Ekanayake’s contributions to the ISS in August 2023, many of the flight tubes were again autographed with the names of Carleton faculty and staff significant to them — Steven M. Drew (chemistry), Briana O’Connell (bassoon), Noboru Tomonari (Asian languages), Hope Sample (philosophy), Isaac Blythe (chemistry), Beatriz Pariente-Beltrán (Spanish), and Hannah Schendel (music) all currently have their names in space.
Erica Helgerud ’20 is the news and social media manager for Carleton College.