On Tuesday, April 1, Valeria Fernanda Sierra Cano, a chemical engineering student, placed a pin on a map to point out that she is the first representative Guatemala scholarship in taking the course AST 101, in the International Institute of Astronautical Sciences (IIAS), In Florida, United States. In this course, students use a pressurized astronaut suit and participate in training in a hypobárica chamber – the most similar to performing exercises – among other activities.
The course was designed and taught by NASA astronaut instructors and other scientists who train students who aspire to be candidates for space missions. Since 2015, the IAS has provided instruction to students from more than 60 countries, who have contributed to research together with the Canadian Space Agency, the National Research Council of Canada, Survival Systems USA, Florida Tech, the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, Naui, the Royal Canadian Air Force and various academic universities.
People from more than 60 countries have participated in this course in a project called space for all nations, (Space for All Nations) . “We access different countries that are interested in the space industry and that may not have space agencies. In the case of Guatemala, interest in the issue has been aroused after the country launched its first satellite and then it was headquarters of the Central American Space Congress, (CEC)“, explains David Guajardo de Iias.
The creator of Iias is Jason Reimuller, current executive director of the IIAS. Before joining the IIAS, he worked for six years as a systems engineer and project manager for the NASA Constellation Program, where he directed studies on launch abortions, launch commitment criteria, landing conditions, crew output operations after landing and emergency, and propulsion options.
Reimuller with a Doctorate in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from Colorado University in Boulder explains that there are projects that seek inclusion and that people from all over the world are inspired, “We want young people to study all kinds of sciences because in space each of them is used,” he adds.
Sierra initially studied the virtual phase of the program and currently participates in the face -to -face stage. He is a chemical engineering student at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala and said that this experience has filled him with emotion, as he obtained a scholarship after participating in a scientific contest held in Guatemala.
“I would like to open a gap in the country with this course. It has helped me expand my mind because in Guatemala it is not normalSierra says.
What is learned in the Astronaut Fundamentals Course?
The Guatemalan Valeria Sierra is a scholarship in the course, she and the students of the AST 101 course receive some of the following parameters during it. In a regular student, the course has an investment of US $ 4,500 to US $ 5,000 (from Q34 thousand to Q38 thousand)
- Three weeks of preparatory web seminars (online)
- Five days of instruction and training sessions (in Melbourne, Florida)
- Missions simulation and training resource management in the IAS suborbital flight flight simulator
- Aerospace physiology flight in high gravity and microgravity using an extra 300l acrobatic plane
- Awareness training on hypoxia at great altitude in an altitude chamber, including awareness of hypoxia.
- Initial training with space suit (placement, removal, pressure regulation, basic mobility, fine motor skills, flight system control, contingency operations).
- Complete simulation of the mission of the noctilucent cloud tomography experiment using a pressurized space suit, among others.
What consisted of the Valeria Sierra project that took her to this course for Astronauts?
In 2024, Guatemala hosted the II Central American Space Congress (CEC 2024), organized in the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. The event included multiple activities and talks, with the participation of NASA representatives, the Mexican Space Agency, the Portuguese Space Agency, the Costa Rican Space Agency and the Aerospace Exploration Agency of Japan (Jaxa), among other prominent guests.
One of the activities of CEC 2024 in Guatemala was a contest of scientific posters, aimed at explaining projects in the field of sciences and space industry. The competition was organized by the IIAS and the Guatemalan Association of Engineering and Space Sciences (Agice). The prize consisted of a complete scholarship for the AST 101 course.
The winners were the creators of the project Azucalímerowhich proposes the use of sugarcane ash as construction material. The project was developed by Valeria Sierra and Federico Tzunux Tzoc, originally from Momostenango, Totonicapán, a synthesis chemistry researcher. Currently, Sierra represents the team in person.
The second place went to José Rodolfo Balcárcel, a student of Industrial Mechanical Engineering and member of the Quetzal-2 satellite developer team, and for Natalia Renée Lemus, student of Industrial Chemical Engineering and in charge of the Biodiesel Project in the Unitary Operations Laboratory of the University of the Valley of Guatemala. His proposal was related to microgravity.
In third place were selected Karla Alejandra Fuentes, Electronic Engineering student at the University of San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC), and Margarita Leticia Ajpop, Patzún, Chimaltenango. Ajpop also studies electronic engineering and is currently dedicated to teaching music and painting tutorials.