Michal Bodzianowski, a sixth-grader from Colorado will be sending his beer brewing experiment to space after winning a National Center for Earth and Space Science Education competition.
A sixth grader usually eagerly awaits his chance to drink beer, not brew it. Forget brewing it in space! But 11-year-old Michal Bodzianowski is different and has bigger dreams than his peers. This sixth grader recently won a National Center for Earth and Space Science Education competition, beating over 4,000 competitors and now has a chance to send his beer-brewing machine to space.
"He [Michal] came up with this idea all on his own," said Sharon Combs, teacher and sponsor at the STEM School and Academy in Colorado, which focuses on instruction in the sciences, according to ABC News. "He got a book for Christmas that was about weird facts and explains how in the Middle Ages they used to drink beer because it was purer than water."
Michal's experiment tests the beer brewing process in microgravity and is one of the 11 experiments that has been chosen to fly to space, Fox News reports. He will be given a mini-laboratory that will be flown into space by astronomers at the International Space Station in a few months time. Before that, Michal will prepare the experiment in a 6-inch-long silicon tube, with clasps segregating hops, malted barley, yeast and water. Once launched, the astronomers will mix the substances and carry out the experiment in space, according to Michal's instructions.
Both Michal and his teacher have been invited to NASA in December to witness the launch. The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education sponsored the competition as part of the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program. The competition received 744 proposals from over 4,000 students from which 11 were chosen. With this competition, the organizations hope to encourage young Americans to take a keener interest in science.
Though space agencies don't plan on throwing a keg party in space any time soon, they claim that this experiment will be useful in space for both medical and survival reasons.
"You never know how some of these experiments can be a stepping stone to something else," Combs said. "That's how science works!"
