“Explorers with specialized knowledge.”
For decades, spaceflight was for the elite few that were fortunate to become astronauts. While it was exciting for our generation to watch men walk on the moon, the space program seemed out of reach for the majority of young people. The ordinary child could watch, but they couldn’t DO.
The emerging commercial spaceflight industry has now opened space to anyone who wants to be a part of it. NASA, the commercial space providers, and research groups, such as ours, are excited about the possibilities of getting students interested in space and in science.
Sovaris Aerospace is excited to be part of this next evolution of human exploration. We are committed to supporting students in gaining an opportunity to participate in the experience of spaceflight science. We believe that if students can engage with something as fascinating as spaceflight, it will make science cool. Through this personal connection, we hope students will develop a new relationship with science and exploration.
The Basic Educational Objectives
The program objectives for our student initiatives are focused on the following:
- Educational: To stimulate kids’ interest in science by giving them the opportunity for participatory spaceflight.
- Research: To expand the number of human specimens flying in suborbital flights with the intent to perform genomic, proteomic, and metabolomic analysis. The intent is to better understand the human biological response to human spaceflight.
Youth Support Team
Our student program is led by two college students, who are presently on the Sovaris Aerospace staff.
Caleb M. Schmidt. B.S., M.S.
Caleb has a B.S. in Biochemistry and a minor in Chemistry from Colorado State University. He also completed an M.S. in Microbiology through the Masters in Microbiology and Immunology professional program through the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology at Colorado State University. He intends to also pursue a degree in medicine. In addition to his academic studies, he has been employed in the Cancer Prevention Laboratory within the biomedical sciences department at CSU. He has also worked in the Wilusz Lab at Colorado State University, which is focused on the mechanisms and regulation of mRNA metabolism in eukaryotic cells and how these processes influence pathogenesis of human diseases, including cancer, viral infection and myotonic dystrophy. The group is also examining how mRNA decay contributes to the achievement and maintenance of pluripotency in stem cells. Caleb has also been heavily involved in a series of Sovaris projects related space biomedicine and human space countermeasures.
Julian C. Schmidt
Julian is Senior pre-med student at St. Mary’s College in California, majoring in biochemistry. He has taken additional training in cell biology and molecular biology at UC Davis. Julian is interested in neuroscience and he intends to pursue a career in neurosurgery. He has also been heavily involved in a series of Sovaris projects related to space biomedicine and human space countermeasures.