A schoolboy in the UK has helped NASAidentify a problemwith a radiotherapy sensor on the International Space Station ( ISS ) , as part of a citizen science project .
Speaking toBBC World at One(starts around the 16 - minute mark ) , 17 - year - old Miles Solomon said he and his classmates had been given data from theTimPix Project , inquiry embark on by British astronaut Tim Peake during his time on the station in 2015 and 2016 .
In particular , Solomon was looking at data from radioactivity sensors installed on the station as part of this undertaking , acknowledge as theRadiation Environment Monitor . These monitor the levels of radiotherapy on the station , observe when it is high and low .
Solomon noticed that some of the reading , however , were register damaging zip values – which is out of the question . Thus , he right infer that there must be a problem with the sensor , and sent an email to NASA to recite them .
“ I remark that where we should have had no energy , so there was no radiotherapy for that four indorsement [ how often readings are taken ] , it was actually showing minus one , ” he enjoin the BBC . “ And the first thing I cerebrate there is , well you ca n’t have negative energy . And then we actualise that this was an error . ”
NASA had plainly already known about this issue , but they thought it was only occurring once or twice a year due to a problem with an algorithmic rule . But Soloman discover it was occur multiple time a day . Professor Larry Pinsky from the University of Houston , who works on the radiation monitors , told the BBC the fudge factor was “ appreciated more so than it being embarrassing . ”
This finding was made possible by theInstitute for Research in Schools(IRIS ) , which gives students access code to real data from actual experiment taking place on Earth and in space . This includes not just the ISS , but research taking place in other places like the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica too .
Citizen science projects like this are extremely utile , for both the bookman to get involved with veridical datum and for organizations like NASA . Other projection , such asZooniverse , encourage people to look for planet beyond the Solar System , among other things .
And you never recognise , you just might get the chance to raise the world ’s largest space agency awry . Solomon has now been invited by NASA to help them await at the trouble .
