A Missouri University of Science and Technology student group that conducts NASA-sponsored microgravity research will present findings from their work to improve CPR methods in space at a regional space development conference this November. Other presenters at the conference include speakers from NASA and Boeing.

Miners in Space team members Elizabeth Robinson and Shannah Withrow will present the team’s findings at the Gateway to Space 2014 regional conference Nov. 7-9 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in St. Louis. The conference is presented by the St. Louis chapter of the National Space Society.

The team has worked with NASA’s Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program for the past three years on a project designed to improve CPR methods in zero gravity. Miners in Space proposes to use existing active chest compression-decompression CPR (ACD CPR) in a behind-the-back application to improve current NASA protocol for long-term space flights. ACD CPR uses a hand-held suction device, applied mid sternum, to compress the chest then actively decompress the chest after each compression.

Robinson, a sophomore in ceramic engineering from Las Vegas, Nevada, and Withrow, a senior in aerospace engineering from Odessa, Missouri, will present the findings of the team’s two experiments using zero-gravity CPR and a fluids model of the human chest to compare the flow rate of the heart during ACD-CPR and traditional CPR.

“The NASA program that the team has been a part of for three years is a highly competitive opportunity that many colleges and universities vie for,” says Dr. Hank Pernicka, the team’s faculty advisor and associate professor of aerospace engineering at Missouri S&T. “The students are now working to raise visibility for their work and hope to have NASA accept their idea and test the method, possibly on board the International Space Station.”