Space Cowboys
Students lead galactic efforts on campus and beyond.
The rooftop of Love Gymnasium is vast, flat and really high up. Just ask seniors Avery Clowes ’20 and Billy Menken ’20. They’ve been there. The pair scaled four flights of stairs (including a super-steep set by the old squash courts), unlocked two secured doors, and stepped out onto the building’s roof on a sunny Sunday afternoon last October. It was not a prank. It was part of a fully sanctioned scientific expedition.
The boys’ goal was to get in touch with space — literally, to hold pieces of it. To do that, they needed to find a giant “bowl” where micrometeorites, or granule-sized space rocks that have traveled through our planet’s atmosphere without completely vaporizing, might land. “About 60 tons fall to earth every day in a constant shower we never notice,” Menken says. “They’re 0.2 to 0.5 millimeters in diameter — barely visible to the naked eye.” With its substantial perimeter ledges and surface area, Love Gym’s roof seemed just the spot.
Their hypothesis proved correct. Clowes and Menken found a mother lode of micrometeorites in piles of dirt surrounding the building’s gutters, pushed there by the prior day’s rain. Using ordinary magnets and Ziploc bags they collected space debris to analyze. “Micrometeorites are just sitting on the ground waiting to be discovered,” Clowes says.
“When you look at one through a microscope, it’s like this alien foreign object. It looks like a polished metal sphere. You can see crystals that have formed because of the heat from entering through the atmosphere. You can see the melted surface.” Beyond the cool factor, Clowes says, “[This project] was a way to engage in the space community and get a feel for what it means to do real science.”
Inspired, the boys planned another on-Earth space project for the spring. This time, they built a cloud chamber to detect cosmic rays. “You’d be surprised at how easy it is,” Menken says, listing a few required materials, including a glass rectangular prism (or a fish tank), sponges, isopropyl alcohol and a few blocks of dry ice. “It’s beautiful that you don’t need a thousand dollars and a massive battery and some complex wiring to make some project to do with space,” Clowes says.
Their findings, and the thrill of discovery, were too good not to share. “You can watch as many space documentaries as you want,” Menken says, “but seeing something from space, seeing a cosmic ray zip through a cloud chamber that you built, is completely different.”
This year, the duo launched a website to publish what they’ve learned and engage a space-enthusiast community far beyond the Academy. The site features science-project video tutorials (including how to re-create their micrometeorite mining session and cloud chamber on the cheap), testimonials from fellow students about why space is relevant right now, and advice from college professors on how to prepare for careers in space.
Clowes and Menken also co-wrote "The High Schooler’s Guide to the Galaxy," an in-depth resource book for kids interested in space, which they posted online for free download. (Visit their website, EOPS.club, to download the guide.)
“Not everyone has access to an insane science museum, science competitions, internships or scholarships that help them get to the next level of achievement,” Clowes says of the 60-page primer. “The Guide is like lowering the barrier for entry to science, science education and science achievement.”
All of these efforts are part of a larger mission, they say, to “prepare young minds for the Space Age.” “We’re creating this more progressive mindset that we’re in this together, because this is really about humanity,” Menken says. “This is about developing a future that we want to live in. A future that’s exciting and full of curiosity and exploration. We want everybody to be a part of that together.”