By Alexandra Wexler

news@hearldsun.com; 419-6641

DURHAM ­— Four teams of students from the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics will be traveling to NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, Calif., come April.

The teams have all qualified as finalists for the 2010 Conrad Foundation Spirit of Innovation Awards, which challenges students to develop scientific products viable in the real world market.

Two NCSSM teams qualified in the Aerospace Exploration category, one team in Space Nutrition and one team in Renewable Energy. These four teams will join 21 others to compete for the top prizes in their categories.

“We’re so excited,” Violette Zhu, 17, said. Zhu is a member of the Space Nutrition Team, which is developing a nutrition bar for use by astronauts, called “Peanut Butter Rocket Chips.”

According to Zhu, the bar had to conform to many guidelines set out by the competition, including carbohydrate, fat and protein content. In addition, the bar had to have an estimated shelf life of up to five years.

“They taste ... delicious,” Zhu said jokingly. Fortunately, she and the rest of Team Rocket will get to travel to the Mattson food science labs in Foster City, Calif., in February to refine their final product. If they win, they will receive 10,000 of their very own Peanut Butter Rocket Chip bars.

The two Aerospace Exploration teams, the Sun Sailors and the Tenorios, have both conceptualized and written reports on products for use in space.

The Sun Sailors’ device will essentially make spaceships green by harnessing solar power and reducing the use of rocket fuel, Ashley Guo, 17, explained.

The Tenorios are designing an improved version of the Mars rover, according to Jonathan Bennett, their adviser and a physics teacher at NCSSM. His students have decided to use bigger wheels, a simpler transmission and rear-wheel drive to prevent the rovers from becoming stuck on the Martian surface.

Ankesh Madan, 16, of the Renewable Energy Team, said that he and his fellow students tried to think of a new way to harness the power of waves. “We thought, 70 percent of the world is covered in water — why don’t we use that?” he explained.

The team took that idea and created a device that will use the pressure created by waves on it to produce electrical energy. According to team member Akash Ganapathi, 17, their product could eventually help people who live in oceanside homes save up to 20 percent on their energy bills.

“One thing that’s unique about the Conrad awards is that they combine science with entrepreneurship,” Myra Halpin, NCSSM’s dean of science, said.

According to Halpin, at the final competition in April, students will get to meet with patent attorneys, industry experts, other entrepreneurs, as well as learn about intellectual property rights and how to acquire the funds that they would need to continue their product development.