Work by students at a Canterbury school is to be included on a future space mission.

A-level pupils at Simon Langton Boys’ School will present the LUCID (Langton Ultimate Cosmic Ray Intensity Detector) to a team of top scientists from NASA, Europe and the USA in Switzerland next month.

Their cosmic ray detector uses technology from the ground-breaking Hadron collider in Switzerland and has moved experts to include it on board a future satellite mission.

Audio: hear Dr Parker and Peter Hatfield talking about the moon rock >>>

Their work will hopefully become the base for a network of information linking schools and academics across the UK.

Teacher and director of the school’s Star Centre, Becky Parker, said: “This has really put a kind of sparkle back into science here.

“We have more than 100 pupils doing physics in the sixth form and at least 15 who are going to do the subject at university this year.”

A-level student Peter Hatfield said: “You do not need a Phd to enjoy this kind of physics.

“It is about thinking about a solution to a problem in a new way. It’s all been very exciting.”

Students and staff also got as close to the moon as they could without a spacesuit when parts of NASA’s moon rock haul from the 1960s and 1970s was lent to them for a week of study by the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council.