College of the Canyons is the only community college in the country — for the second year in a row — with the opportunity to fly a student-built experiment into the atmosphere.

COC students are participating in NASA’s High Altitude Student Platform (HASP) — a science balloon that enables only 12 universities and colleges to test a student-made experiment in the upper limits of the Earth’s atmosphere.

“This project is allowing me to get hands-on experience,” said Patrick Gagnon, chief engineer for the COC team. “We are able to consolidate what we have been learning and turn it into real world applications.”

The payloads carried by HASP are designed and built by students and will be used to flight-test compact satellites or prototypes and to fly other small experiments, according to NASA.

Flights typically last anywhere from six to 25 hours and can achieve an altitude of over 135,000 feet.

COC Chancellor Dr. Dianne Van Hook examines a 3-D printed model made in the school’s Maker Space

The College of the Canyons team is comprised of about a dozen students studying engineering, computer science and mathematics — most of these students are aspiring to work in the aerospace industry.

“The collaboration with all of these passionate students fosters growth,” he explained. “If you don’t know something we teach one another — that is priceless.”

The major goals of the HASP Program are to foster student excitement in an aerospace career path and to help address workforce development issues in this area.

“This project gave me resume applicable experience, to get my foot in the door into aerospace companies,” continued Gagnon. “And also have the opportunity to participate in something greater than myself.”

The HASP project is currently being constructed by COC team — the payload is set to be ready for NASA testing by July 1, according to faculty advisor Teresa Ciardi.

This project has fostered a tremendous growth in the students in two areas — leadership and communication, said Ciardi.

The flight testing will be conducted at the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas by NASA engineers.

Once the project passes testing, it is set to launch in September at the NASA balloon launch facility at Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

“Sometimes community college students are swept under the rug,” said Gagnon. “It doesn’t matter where you go — if you have the ambition and drive to do something, you will do great things.”