To make an electrical arc, they use two carbon rods, called electrodes . The ends of the two rods are close enough to each other that if you run a lot of electricity through them, it will create an electric arc between them, kind of like lightning. The electric arc gets so hot that it creates a plasma out of some of the carbon from the rods. As the plasma is created, nanotubes are formed in the plasma. Of course, we have to be very careful around all the electricity and we wouldn't want to do this out in the open, so it all takes place inside a very low-pressure chamber.
Free convection draws some of the carbon away from the plasma because it pulls the molecules down.
As a result, fewer carbon molecules are available to link together to form the nanotubes. Sending it into space would be pretty difficult, and very expensive. If the proposal is one of the 48 that is accepted, the students go to JSC for two weeks to train and fly the experiment. We're going to Houston in March to fly our experiment. Ed takes time out for a little floating fun.