To the Edge of Space: Students Getting Real World Experience Designing Projects
Students at RRCC have opportunities to work on projects with NASA. Check out this team’s work.
April 20, 2026
On Saturday morning earlier this month, students woke up before dawn to drive to Deer Trail where teams from nine institutions tied their experiments together on to the tail of a high-altitude balloon that was released and floated up to about 84,000 feet in the air.
As students prepped their experiments, they encountered a catastrophic problem – one of the chemicals was leaking – but the team came together to find a solution 10 minutes before flight.
“I know it was really stressful, but the good news is we still got data,” said Kacey Dickson, one of the student leaders of the team. “It was exciting to just say we got to do this, and it’s still a learning opportunity.”
It was a chance for the students from the Red Rocks Community College DemoSat team to finally see the projects they’ve been working on launch into the atmosphere. The team is one of four at RRCC supported by the Colorado Space Grant Consortium.
Approximately a dozen RRCC students have been a part of the RRCC DemoSat team this school year, designing and launching three experiments in total. The three projects could not weigh more than 800 grams. That forced students to cut the weight and make final tweaks, right up until the last day before the launch.
The experience provided students with the opportunity to collaborate on real-world problems, apply knowledge from different classes, think critically to solve different conditions, and pitch the experiments to NASA reviewers.
And it gave students a peek at what happens when things don’t go exactly as planned.
The balloon was designed to pop as it reached the ozone layer of the atmosphere, around 100,000 feet, on the edge of space, and then float down—but it popped early.
Meanwhile, students drove around tracking the balloon’s flight with tracking software, ensuring they were able to retrieve their experiments when they landed.
Throughout the year, students have to meet certain deadlines and criteria and are judged by NASA scientists who confirm if student projects are ready for flight.
The three student-designed experiments were housed in a box and tied to the balloon.
- Students made their own chemical sunscreen that they hope can be used to coat plastic and protect it from degradation with UV rays, which would mean it could still be recycled.
- Students made their own, cheaper, version of an ozonesonde, which is a tool to measure ozone concentrations.
- Students designed a turbine that would be self-powered and record the correlation between voltage and altitude as it spun.
Students say that joining the team has helped them explore different disciplines, learn to collaborate, manage, and get a feel for a real work-based learning scenario, where the stakes are higher than a grade for an assignment.
“You can get great opportunities, and get your foot in the door,” said Mimi Telford. “You meet great people that are all there for one goal and everyone is willing to help you.”
Telford is another student leaders of DemoSat. She’s planning to transfer to the Colorado School of Mines this fall and wants to go into biomedical engineering.
Her co-leader, Kacey, has been at RRCC for two years and has one more to go. She’s working on an associate of engineering science degree and wants to eventually get a degree in chemical engineering.
“Ambition is what got me,” said Kacey about taking on the leadership position. “I’ve learned a lot about who I am as a leader and I’ve been able to dabble into everything in engineering. I really enjoy it.”
For student Daniel Benson, working on the DemoSat projects opened up his interest in working for NASA one day.
Daniel is interested in electrical engineering and is also planning to transfer to the Colorado School of Mines next fall to pursue a degree there.
“I wanted to do something hands on,” Daniel said. “I found it really interesting to see how many different fields of engineering are working together on this. Projects like this prepare you really well for the future.”
When students recovered their experiment, they were relieved to see their last-minute solution worked to stop the leak so that the other experiments involving electricity still functioned. After the stress and excitement of the weekend, they’re spending this week analyzing the collected data to ensure it was not compromised and to determine what conclusions can be drawn.
What’s next? The team is preparing to present their project and everything they’ve learned on April 25 at the Colorado Space Grant Symposium hosted by RRCC. There, they’ll also learn if their experiments won any awards this year.
“It was a really fun experience, we learned a lot,” Mimi said. “If you’re interested, even if you’re not super confident, there are so many things you’re going to learn.”
“If you want to apply your learning, join us,” Kacey added. “The number of opportunities we get is insane. We get to work with NASA. How many people get to say that?”