A second scientific project by schoolgirls from Lviv region is set to be launched into space.

An American jury has selected student project proposals for a competition that will send experiments into space in 2025. One of the winners is a project by schoolgirls from Skole in the Lviv region. This marks the second project from Skole School No. 2 to be chosen for space research. Last year, the chemistry teacher and scientific mentor of the students, Larysa Romanishyn, was recognized at the Global Teacher Prize. She shared with ZAXID.NET about her students' new research.

Ninth-grader Maria Poyasnyk and tenth-grader Kristina Yareminets from Skole School No. 2 named after Stefania Vitruk are working on an experiment titled “Production of Polyurethanes from Renewable Raw Materials for Use as Insulation Materials in Space Exploration.”

“Polyurethanes have a foamy structure and can be used as thermal insulation materials. Each spacecraft that goes into orbit carries several tons of polyurethane in its shell. Therefore, our project has attracted significant interest from Americans. The novelty lies in its ecological aspect, as it is made from renewable materials,” Larysa Romanishyn explained to ZAXID.NET.

As reported by the Small Academy of Sciences, this scientific project first won at the all-Ukrainian SSEP competition for school space experiments, held from September to November 2024. Thirty school teams from Ukraine competed for the opportunity to send mini-laboratories for research in microgravity to the International Space Station. The Skole students' experiment made it to the list of nine finalists in the competition.

Subsequently, in November-December 2024, the finalists' experiments were evaluated by an American jury from NCESSE and SSEP. The Skole project and the experiment by students from Kropyvnytskyi titled “Research on the Impact of Microgravity on the Germination of Leguminous Plants” emerged victorious. These two projects are scheduled to be launched into space at the end of 2025.

Larysa Romanishyn noted that one of the materials used for the experiment is quite expensive. The supply provided by the polytechnic has already been exhausted. To continue and complete the experiment, they need to purchase 20 grams of a specific reagent, which costs $730. The teacher is reaching out to potential sponsors for support of the students' scientific project.

It is worth mentioning that on November 4, the SpaceX-31 rocket was launched into space, carrying an experimental sample from the project researching microgravity by students from the same Skole School No. 2 named after Stefania Vitruk. Schoolgirls Viktoria Kavchak and Viktoria Batko were involved in the research of biomedical hydrogels.

Larysa Romanishyn shared that this experiment has already returned to Earth. “We will receive it soon, and next week we will start conducting experiments with it, investigating the differences between the hydrogel that was in orbit and that from the laboratory. We will compare their chemical properties and see how gravity affected this process,” the scientist added.