SANDUSKY, Ohio — A small step for NASA is proving to be a giant leap for a high school robotics club in Sandusky.
After going through hundreds of proposals to fly aboard one of its future missions, NASA chose the one from the Perkins High School's robotics team.
The students' proposal was not only the lone selection from Ohio, but also the only selection from a high school club in America.
"MIT, Brown University, very well known colleges, they decided to pick a little high school in northern Ohio," said student Tyler Blue.
The small robotics club at Perkins High school is about to tackle its biggest challenge yet. Its proposal to NASA has literally put them on the map with big names like MIT and Arizona State.
"It illustrates perfectly the value of hard work over just throwing money at problems," said Perkins alumnus and mentor Marek Brodke. "We obviously don't have a lot of funding but we definitely work our butts off. That is for sure."
The 13 winning projects will be onboard rockets launching between 2022 and 2025.
The Perkins' team will be working to improve a project they've built from the ground up. It's been programmed to pick things up, place them and even shoot them.
But the new project will have real-world applications.
"What they were looking for was like an arm," said student Noah Brodke, "and that's like you could fix spaceships and like satellites in space."
Junior Brooke McClusky is one of the newest members of the team. She says it beats any ordinary club or subject in school.
"Hands-on experience building things, getting your mind working," said Brooke, "and just like having your imagination being able to bring something to life is good."
Principal Jeff Harbal said he is so proud of how far the club has come in just four years, adding its efforts are changing the landscape of what education should be.
"Education is changing, you know, it's no longer just sitting in rows and being fed material," he said. "We're preparing kids for jobs that we don't even know exist."
So the countdown is on. The team now has four years to develop and test the project before it lifts off to the stars.