Jordan's Dream

Once upon a time there was a girl named Jordan who was 9 years old and was on the Vestigo Space Ship for a journey to a new planet. One morning she woke up at 4 am because something was shining through her eyelids. So she got up to see what is was. She looked out the window and she squinted. It was so bright. It was almost like the sun’s light, but bigger and she knew right away it wasn’t a star because it did not have any planets circling it so it must be a planet. She started researching more about the planets in this part of the galaxy from the books on exoplanets she was given before the spaceship began its journey. Then she wondered, could snakes live on that planet? They never get sunburn from ultra violet light because they have scales and snakes even lie in the sun for long periods of time to generate the heat they need to power themselves.

See Jordan loved snakes, all snakes. She even wanted to be a herpetologist when she grew up. Jordan was a little disappointed she wasn’t returning to earth where she could fulfill her dream. Maybe there is a herpetologist on the space ship who could help her she thought. So she got the map of the space ship and found the herpetology lab. She went to lab where there were twin herpetologists. She said “excuse me?” The twins said “yes?” She said “ I really love snakes and I saw a planet this morning that looks like the sun but a lot bigger. I thought maybe a snake could live there because they can’t get sunburn from ultra violet light and they get power from the sun. “Yes, you are right” said the twins. “ Snake do not get sunburn because they have keratin in their skin and that helps protect them from the UV light. “That gives me an idea!” Jordan said. We could make a space suit that people can wear to live on our new planet but the suit would be designed like snake skin, with the scales to offer UV protection and the mobility like snakes have. The twins said “great idea!” “How about lets get started making it!”

So the twins brought out some snake skin to look at its composition under the microscope. Jordan said “well first we need keratin because that is what is in their skin that protects them from UV light and we must have some sort of fabric that will make it comfortable. I know I can not reproduce keratin, but I can make something that is like it. The twins said “ well there is a material called polycarbonate and it is hard like keratin and offers UV protection too.” “Oh” Jordan said “maybe we could use it and shape it into scales.” So they did. Then they said “we need fabric so it is comfy for people who wear it.” So the team brought out several different kinds of fabric and Jordan chose nylon tricot because it is used in bathing suits and used in the current space suits too. Its tight weave offers some UV protection . After that she layered the polycarbonate scales and then Jordan attached them to the nylon tricot fabric until the prototype was done.

Now she just needed to find some one on space ship who could launch outside of the space ship and stick their prototype to side of the space ship for a week to see if was powerful enough enough to not let to UV light in. Then one of the twins said “I know just the person Liam! He goes outside the Space ship all the time.” Jordan asked “where is he?” The twins said “I think he is in the library .” Jordan said “Wait! How will we know how much UV light will come through our prototype?” One of the twins said “we could put a sensor under it so we can track the results on the radiometer.”

So Jordan went to the library and he was in fiction row. She went running over there and she said “excuse me Liam?” “Yes?” said Liam . Jordan said “ I wanted to know if you could go out of the space ship to stick this Space suit prototype I made on the outside of the space ship?” Liam said “yes, meet me at 5:00 in the library.” When she went back to the library he was ready. “Come on lets go to the port door” he said. Then he went out side of the space ship and stuck the prototype on the ship. They went to the radiometer to see how well it kept out the UV light. They discovered that though it did block some UV light, it was not perfect. They started to think about how they could improve it. One of the twins said “ snakes, fish and birds, produce Gadusol, which is like a super sunscreen, under their scales. It would take a while but maybe we could develop something like that to add protection to our suit.” “Good thing we have a decade or so left in this journey!” said Jordan. They all laughed. Jordan was glad she had found a way to blend her love of herpetology with engineering to develop an awesome new product.

Annotated Bibliography

“How many solar systems are in our galaxy?” NASA Science Spaceplace published 10/24/2019 accessed 1/30/2020
This website mentions that astronomers shave found evidence of over 2500 other stars with planets around them.

Megan Gambino “Ask an Expert: Do Animals Get Sunburned.” Smithsonian Magazine published 7/11/2011 accessed 1/23/2020 /
This website mentions that snakes are protected from sound burn by their scales.

John Woodward “Everything You Need to Know About Snakes and Other Scaly Reptiles” DK Smithsonian Publishing 2013
This book (pg 16) mentions that snakes hard scales are made of keratin.

Tony Rogers “Everything You Need to Know About Polycarbonate” Creative Mechanism published 8/21/2015 accessed 1/26/2020
This website mentions that polycarbonate is a UV filter and is able to be formed into shapes.

“Spacesuit” How Products Are Made n.d. Accessed 1/26/2020 < http://www.madehow.com/Volume-5/Spacesuit.html>
This website mentions nylon tricot is used in the innermost layer of the modern space suit.

“How to Measure UV Radiation” Brewer Spectrophotometer n.d. Accessed 1/27/2020
This website mentions a radiometer as an instrument for measuring UV Radiation.

“Why Animals Don’t Need Sunscreen?” SciShow Kids published 8/2/2018 accessed 1/28/2020
This YouTube channel mentions gadusol produced by reptiles, fish and birds is like a natural sunscreen and researchers are looking into how to reproduce something like it.