Tulane EENS Undergraduate Students Reach for the Stars—Literally
What does it take to send an experiment to space? For a group of Tulane University undergraduates, the answer involved late nights in the lab, creative problem-solving, rigorous proposal writing—and a healthy dose of scientific ambition. Through the NASA-affiliated Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP), Tulane students competed against their peers for the chance to fly a real scientific payload aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The result: one selected flight experiment and two honorable mention finalists, all conceived and developed right here in New Orleans.
The Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences is proud to share the stories of the students behind this extraordinary achievement—in their own words.
What Is the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program?
Launched in 2010 by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE), SSEP is a model national STEM initiative that gives students the remarkable opportunity to design and propose real microgravity experiments to fly in low Earth orbit. The program is not a simulation—experiments are integrated into actual payloads, reviewed by NASA for flight safety, and ultimately operated by astronauts aboard the ISS. Each participating community competes through a formal proposal review process, mirroring how professional researchers compete for limited research resources.
For Mission 21 to ISS, Tulane University represented the New Orleans community. Undergraduate students engaged in experiment design and submitted proposals across a range of scientific disciplines. From origins-of-life biology to lunar construction materials to fungal ecology in space, the breadth and quality of Tulane’s submissions reflect the department’s commitment to genuine, hands-on research at every stage of a student’s academic journey.
Selected for Flight: The Origins of Life—Explored in Weightlessness
The experiment selected to represent Tulane and New Orleans aboard the ISS asks one of science’s most profound questions: How did life begin? The student team—Co-Principal Investigators Noa Aval, Brenden Findlay, and Nam Joshua Nguyen, working under the mentorship of Dr. Noshir Pesika, PhD—designed a study examining coacervates in microgravity.
Coacervates are dense liquid droplets formed by the phase separation of oppositely charged polymers. Scientists consider them among the leading models for how early protocells—the precursors to modern cells—may have first appeared on Earth billions of years ago. While coacervates have been studied extensively under Earth’s gravity, their behavior in microgravity has never before been directly examined. The Tulane team hypothesizes that weightlessness will reduce droplet coalescence, enhance molecular cargo partitioning, and increase enzymatic activity within the droplets—all of which would have significant implications for our understanding of how life may arise elsewhere in the universe.
Beyond astrobiology, the findings carry practical significance for the design of self-assembling biomaterials and future space biomanufacturing technologies. A NASA astronaut will conduct the experiment aboard the ISS over a period of four to six weeks, after which the samples will be returned to Earth for analysis by the student flight team.
Honorable Mention Finalists: Two More Extraordinary Ideas
The strength of Tulane’s submissions was reflected not just in the selected experiment, but in two additional proposals that earned Honorable Mention recognition at the national level. Each project addresses a distinct challenge at the frontier of space science, and each grew from the curiosity and determination of students who refused to think small.
Building on the Moon: Lunar Cement in Microgravity
If humanity is ever going to establish a sustained presence on the Moon, astronauts will need to build—and they’ll need materials to do it. Shipping construction supplies from Earth is prohibitively expensive, which is why Principal Investigator Zack Herbst and his team, including Investigator Charles Goldstein and collaborators Luke Wheeler and Sebastian Powers (with Teacher Facilitator Keena Kareem), proposed something bold: synthesizing a pozzolanic cement made from a lunar regolith simulant directly in microgravity.
Pozzolanic cements typically combine fly ash—a byproduct of energy production—with ordinary Portland cement. By replacing the fly ash with a material chemically similar to lunar surface rock, the team aims to create a construction material that could be produced in situ on the Moon, reducing the required payload mass by nearly 80%. The team hypothesizes that microgravity will actually improve the compressive strength and structural homogeneity of the resulting cement, potentially making it a superior building material for off-world habitats.
Zack Herbst, Earth and Environmental Science, Class of 2026, reflects on how the project came together:
“This project grew out of my Summer REU with Dr. Ebinger, where I researched lunar materials, the chemistry of lunar mining waste, and its potential use for habitation. When I returned to Tulane, my department encouraged me to keep expanding the idea. What began as a small exploratory project steadily grew—thanks to constant support—into the research my team and I are working on today. This project has shown me what kind of researcher I want to become and has given me the confidence to continue pursuing materials research at the next level.”
— Zack Herbst, Earth and Environmental Science, Class of 2026
Investigator Charlie Goldstein, Earth and Environmental Sciences/Business Management, Class of 2028, describes the experience of tackling a genuinely novel scientific challenge:
“We’ve had to find creative, and often completely original, solutions to complex aspects of our work, and have risen to the task each time through dedicated effort. Our group dived deep into the fields of materials science and planetary geology and emerged successfully with a design that could reshape current approaches to lunar structure building and to terrestrial engineering. The opportunity to continue our research with data from aboard the International Space Station would allow our team to make an unprecedented step forward in humanity’s endeavors to explore our solar system.”
— Charlie Goldstein, Earth and Environmental Sciences/Business Management, Class of 2028
From Earth to Orbit: Exploring Fungal Growth in Microgravity
The second Honorable Mention finalist tackles a question that may seem surprising—but is in fact critically important to long-duration spaceflight: what happens to fungi when gravity disappears? Co-Principal Investigators Kristen Rashelle Webster, Vincent Martin, and Yolanda Canabate Garcia, mentored by Dr. Joan W. Bennett, designed a study examining how microgravity influences the growth, mycelial structure, and spore production of Aspergillus niger, a common mold species.
Fungi follow humans into virtually every environment—and space is no exception. Understanding how they behave in microgravity has direct implications for astronaut health (particularly for those with respiratory sensitivities), air quality management in sealed spacecraft, and the potential use of mycelial networks to support crop growth in long-duration space habitats. The team plans to compare fungal cultures grown under Earth’s gravity against those exposed to simulated microgravity conditions, analyzing differences in morphology, pigmentation, and metabolic activity.
Vincent Martin, Earth and Environmental Science, reflects on what the experience opened up for him:
“Having the opportunity to send an experiment to space is a dream come true. Competing for grants is part of being a scientist, as there isn’t enough funding for every project. Being tasked to work as a team and create the best proposal possible offered valuable insight into what life as a scientist may be like after college. This experience not only simulated the work of a scientist but also opened my eyes to new ways to use my Earth and Environmental Science degree. I hadn’t previously considered the possibility of space research.”
— Vincent Martin, Earth and Environmental Science
A Community’s Space Program
SSEP describes itself as giving each participating community “its own—very real—Space Program.” For Tulane and the city of New Orleans, that description has never felt more apt. From a lunar construction breakthrough to the origins of life itself, the scientific questions these students are pursuing are among the most consequential facing humanity as we prepare to venture deeper into the solar system.
What is perhaps most remarkable is not just the quality of the science—it is how these students developed as researchers and thinkers along the way. They learned to collaborate under pressure, navigate the real-world constraints of scientific proposals, and take ownership of ideas that began as curiosity and grew into genuine contributions to human knowledge.
The Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences congratulates Noa Aval, Brenden Findlay, and Nam Joshua Nguyen on their selection for flight, and extends equal pride to all of the Tulane students who competed in this year’s program. We also thank the faculty mentors—Dr. Noshir Pesika, Dr. Joan W. Bennett, Dr. Cynthia Ebinger, Dr. Keena Kareem, and Dr. Noshir Pesika—whose guidance made this achievement possible.
Stay tuned as we follow the journey of Tulane’s experiment from the labs of New Orleans all the way to low Earth orbit.
