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SALT LAKE CITY - A group of Utah students have learned that their science experiment aboard the space shuttle Columbia was found in a Texas parking lot and still could produce useful data.
The aluminum box of salt crystals, an experiment by students from Moab, was recovered in Nacogdoches, Texas, a day after the Feb. 1 tragedy that killed seven astronauts.
Lockheed Martin officials who organized the student experiments learned only last week that the Moab experiment survived the disaster.
The salt crystal box had been placed in a temperature-controlled container in the cargo bay of the shuttle, which disintegrated on its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
Four tiny crystals survived that could allow the students to complete their experiment. They cultivated their own crystals to compare against those sent aboard the Columbia, and hoped to learn how the lack of gravity affected crystal growth.
"We wanted to find out what it takes to live in space," said Dez Hopkins, a sixth-grader at Helen M. Knight Intermediate School.
In all, nine of 80 experiments carried by Columbia have been found inside metal boxes. Scientists opened the boxes earlier this month at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and believe at least five of the experiments will yield usable data.