Make The Most Of A Summer Internship Establishing Good Habits, Setting Goals And Doing Research - I Share

What r u majoring in

As a NASA intern most people assume that I am an aerospace engineering major but I am actually a computer science and electrical engineering double major. I wanted to build the broadest knowledge base possible. I know interns here that are psychology, graphic design, and fashion design related majors. NASA isn’t just for STEM majors. :)

Ideas for Teachers: Apollo Mission Control Simulation Lesson Plan

In this activity students will watch clips of system failures from Apollo 13 movie and must come up with their own solutions to the problem. This activity would be good for 3rd or 4th graders but can be modified to be harder or easier.

Introduce the Flight Positions

Split up students into five groups EECOM (Electrical Environmental and Communication) Power, EECOM Environment, BOOSTER, GNC (Guidance and Navigation Control). and SURGEON. They should have paper and a writing utensil.  

Teacher: "You are each flight controllers in NASA's Mission Control in Houston, TX. Have a picture on the board of NASA's mission control. For this mission I am the flight director but you are all  experts on a space craft system. You are in charge of three astronauts heading to the Moon in this space craft. If you have something you want communicated to the astronaut you must tell me. Have a picture of the Apollo 13 command module attached to the Lunar Lander on the board.

Point at EECOM Power

Teacher: "EECOM Power, you are in charge of the power system that keeps the communication system, computers, heat, and lights on the space craft. You will get data on the battery level, amps, volts and which systems are on."

Point at EECOM Environment

Teacher: "EECOM Environment, you are in charge of the air system on board the space craft. This means scrubbing the carbon out of the air and supplying enough oxygen. You will get data on the O2 CO2 and poisonous gas levels."

Point at BOOSTER

Teacher: "You are in charge of the boosters that fly the astronauts too and from the Moon. You make sure that there is enough fuel to accomplish each task. You will get data on the fuel level and functioning boosters."

Point at GNC

Teacher: "You are in charge of making sure the space capsule is flying in the right direction. You will get data on the flight path of the space craft."

Point at SURGEON

Teacher: "You are in charge of the health of the astronauts. You will get data on their temperature, vital organs, and comments from them on their well being,"

Above are examples of data slides you can display I made with an old Mission Control Picture. Note that these levels and figures in coming up simulation data are not very accurate. For example - in reality over 15% CO2 would cause black outs and brain asphyxiation. What is most important is that data is fluctuating and the students learn what data is important, how to write down observations and react.

Begin Mission

Pull up the current and nominal flight data on the board.

Teacher: "Here is the current data for each of your systems. Write them down because they may change and you may need to fix your systems when something goes wrong."

Students write down data.

Houston We've Had A Problem

Teacher: "These three astronauts are on a mission to the Moon, but something goes horribly wrong. And you have to do something about it. Let's see what happened..."

Show this clip: https://youtu.be/kAmsi05P9Uw

Teacher: "You are tens of thousands of miles away from the astronauts but must fix the problem. Pull up the new set of data. Here the latest data. Tell me whats wrong and how you think we can fix it.

Students write down new data and discuss among themselves whats going on. Students then let the flight director know whats going wrong. Change the data three times so it fluctuates, don't wait for students to write everything down, this is a real time crisis and things won't run as planned.

Example of data slide 4, the vitals show error because in real life the Apollo 13 astronauts took off their vital sensors for privacy.

Teacher checks in with EECOM Power and lets students share their thoughts

Teacher: "Looks like we are loosing power rapidly and can only use certain devices at once. We need to figure out how keep the astronauts alive, send data back to Earth using the computers, and collect enough data on board so we can keep each flight team updated. Hand them batteries, paper clips/ wires, lights and switches. Each light represents an electrical device on board. You must find the correct electrical configuration to power the devices and order in which they must be powered on."

Teacher checks in with EECOM Environment & SURGEON and lets students share their thoughts

Teacher: "Looks like we are losing oxygen for the astronauts to breath. How long till its all gone? Students suggest answers. Here are the materials on board to create a new air filter. This square peg in a round hole. Make it work. Dump the materials on their table." Inspired by this clip: https://youtu.be/C2YZnTL596Q

Teacher checks in with BOOSTER  & GNC and lets students share their thoughts

Teacher: Has BOOSTER & GNC sit closer to each other "Looks like we are off trajectory to the moon, the lunar lander is broken, the space craft is accelerating in the wrong direction we are losing fuel and the only logical thing to do now is head back to Earth. Both of you are needed to solve this problem. Give them a model of Earth, Moon, Capsule and attached Moon Lander. Work together to figure out how to then back to Earth with limited fuel."

Teacher: Talking to all. "Once you come up with a solution come up to the front and explain to your fellow flight controllers what you came up with and why it will work. The other flight controllers can argue if they think it won't work and why. Astronaut lives are at stake so it is necessarily to speak up if something is a faulty idea or you have a better solution."

Students work to solve their problems. Give them a little bit of time to work on it. After each team presents their solution.

Teacher: "Let's see how the NASA engineers solve the problems you were given..."

Note: You may want to scan these clips for swear words before showing them in class. And end the clip accordingly.

EECOM Power: https://youtu.be/KhoXFVQsIxw

EECOM Environment & SURGEON: https://youtu.be/Zm5nUEG5Bjo

BOOSTER & GNC: https://youtu.be/gmLgi5mdTVo

Teacher: "Lastly let's see if the crew makes it back after your adjustments"

https://youtu.be/-1BPx5Wsm7k

Celebrate with astronaut ice cream!

Us Johnson Space folk visited our sibling NASA center Kennedy. We toured the largest one story building in the world, Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), saw parts of the new Space Launch System (SLS) and visited amazing innovators at Swamp Works. Unfortunately the launch was delayed until tomorrow so we will catch it before we leave. Touring NASA Kennedy was humbling, it reminded me that my generation of space exploration advancers stands on the shoulders of giants. WATCH LAUNCH OCT31 12:13pmET http://www.ulalaunch.com/webcast.aspx

Just got my planet stamps from the US Postal Office today for some summer letter writing. They are beautiful!

Space Stamps

Coming in to a post office near you: new “Views of Our Planets: Forever stamps featuring iconic images of the planets in our solar system, including the well-known “Blue Marble” photo of Earth.

New “Pluto Explored” Forever stamps commemorating the July 2015 flyby of Pluto by our New Horizons spacecraft are also being issued for online purchase.

The May 31 first-day-of-issue dedication ceremony for the Pluto and planetary stamps will be in New York City at the World Stamp Show. This international gathering of stamp collectors occurs only once each decade in the United States, and – with more than 250,000 visitors expected to attend – is the largest stamp show in the world.

The Pluto stamps are of special significance to the New Horizons team, which placed a 20-cent 1991 “Pluto: Not Yet Explored” stamp on board the spacecraft. On July 14, 2015, New Horizons carried the stamp on its history-making journey to Pluto and beyond, as jubilant members of the mission team celebrated with a large print, striking the words “not yet.”

The above pane of 16 Forever stamps, the Postal Service showcases some of the more visually compelling historic, full-disk images of the planets obtained during the last half-centruy of our space exploration. Eight new colorful Forever stamps – each shown twice – feature Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

This isn’t the first time that space has been featured on postal stamps. In the past, many different space images and missions have been highlighted on the tiny pieces of paper you stick on the corner of your mail.

Here’s a look at a few space stamps of the past:

Nebulae

Stamps depicting multiple nebulae seen by the Hubble Space Telescope were released in 2000. 

Pioneer 10 

Launched in 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt and obtain close-ups of Jupiter

U.S. Launches Satellites 

This stamp, released in 1999, depicts the post World War II race in space exploration. 

Alan Shepard: First American in Space

This stamp, released in 2011, featured Alan Shepard, the first American in space. Flying on the Mercury spacecraft, Shepard launched, flew 116 miles high and came back to Earth. His flight lasted about 15 and a half minutes. 

MESSENGER Mission

MESSENGER, launching in 2004, was the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. This stamp, released in 2011, highlighted this mission and its importance. Understanding Mercury and how it formed is critical to better understanding the conditions on and evolution of the inner planets.

The new “Views of our Planets” stamps will be widely available across the U.S. at post offices and for online purchase beginning May 31. The Pluto – Explored Forever stamps will only be sold online or by calling 800-782-6724.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

NASA Co-Op Week 11: Leaky Space Station

Space Walk My latest opportunity to sit console was during a spacewalk (extravehicular activity/ EVA) by Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren. They were on a mission to upkeep the International Space Station's ailing structures. One of the primary tasks was to fix an ammonia leak originally identified in 2012. Media dressed this leak up with red flags and flashing lights, however, NASA predicted this fault to occur given the age of ISS and the nature of its climate control system. Since the ISS is a closed loop system the interior produces a lot of heat from astronauts and their hardware, water is used to cool the space station, the energy is then transferred to ammonia, and lastly into giant radiators. This 6.5 hour long EVA consisted of mating power cables, tubes valves, and checking integrity of systems. During the EVA I took flight notes on the procedures Scott and Kjell were running. I was to report what step each of them were on to the PLUTO flight controller to my right.

Grace Hopper Action Items Something that was scary but rewarding was presenting to my branch at NASA about what I learned at GHC and even challenged them with three action items... 1)Make the work place welcoming (paid parent leave, mentoring and celebrating results over hours), 2) Educating the community about how cool STEM is. 3) Communicating Effectively. I encourage you all to present action items to your current employers, student group, or college professionals after attending conferences.

Astronaut Training Development I thought I had made a pretty good astronaut training video... until I put it in front of user testers. I learned I didn't even effectively communicate how to turn the device on right! Back to the drawing board for me. I had 17 users of various ages, disciplines, personalities and technology experience test the training to insure I was catering to everyone. After reviewing helpful feedback I edited the training video again so the messages were clearer.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED NASA summer internship applications now open: https://intern.nasa.gov/ossi/web/public/main/ Learn to code: https://techprep.fb.com/get-started/ Accomplishments this week at NASA: https://youtu.be/NPLPmdFx2yw Houston Maker Faire Nov14 (3D Printing, Robots): http://www.houstonmakerfaire.com/ Astronaut Kjell plays the bagpipes: https://youtu.be/7DWzmq9e0Lw

Stowage Success: NASA Co-Op #3 Week 16

Last week at my third Co-Op tour at NASA Johnson concluded with successful handover and continuation of the stowage app. I passed on development leadership to a full-time employee after receiving  green light from managers. I consider this outcome to be a mission accomplished.

After receiving feedback from non-biased data takers, I met with app developers to prioritize how to move forward with app development. As a result the development team wants to designate a point of contact to learn about stowage ops just as I have to understand what the customer, crew member, would benefit the most from. The developers plan to take the feedback to refine app functionality and interface to make it more intuitive. Additionally, after comments from users like, “what do I do next?”, implement a procedure based app and conduct more user tests after refinements with an explicit tutorial.

Following my exit pitch to management about the stowage app I was awarded a Flight Operations Challenge Coin earned by exemplifying Mission Control values during my Spring Co-Op tour with the Inventory and Stowage Officers. These values include; discipline, competence, confidence, responsibility, toughness, teamwork, and vigilance.

Res Gesta Per Excellentiam -

Achieve through Excellence

This tour has been the most challenging and enjoyable so far. This fall I will be joining OSO (Operations Support Officer) team in Mission control.

You thought volunteering at Houston FIRST Robotics Championships was enough robots for me?

WRONG

I attended the St. Louis Championship too on my way home from Houston! My "Robot" Mater the Duluth East Daredevils and local team Esko Subzero Robotics competed.

It's good that we are moving the St.Louis Championship to Detroit next year because the roof started leaking on the field! Note the plastic tarp covering part of the field.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED

This week at NASA < 3 minute video summary.

First ever virtual career summit Wednesday May 24th hosted by NASA with insight on internships.

Why Co-Op during college?

Astronaut Jack Fischer chats with MIT students about space life.

Johnson Space Center Director, Ellen Ochoa, is inducted in astronaut hall of fame.

Resources for Women in STEM

As a women in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) I wanted to share my resources with you. Each of these camps I participated in, teams I joined and communities I became a part of boosted my confidence in my STEM abilities and fueled my passion to pursue my dream career.

1) NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Award- National Center for Women and  Information Technology (NCWIT) hosts an award for high school students interested in pursuing a career in computer science. “The NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing honors young women at the high-school level for their computing-related achievements and interests. Awardees are selected for their computing and IT aptitude, leadership ability, academic history, and plans for post-secondary education.” 

As an Aspirations Award winner you have access to exclusive scholarships, internship opportunities and get to be a part of a network of thousands of other women passionate about computer science. I know many groups over-hype their networking but this group has honestly opened so many unique doors for me. Five of us NCWITers had the opportunity to represent the group at President Obama’s Champions of Change Event at the White House. There were receptions at Facebook, Google, and the main event at the White House. We got to advocate for Women in STEM and I talked about project based learning.

Another opportunity that was a result of being an Aspirations Award Winner was my ability to attend Defrag Tech conference in Denver Colorado on a scholarship. My first posts on this blog are about Defrag.

2) NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Community Women studying in computer science in college, from an academic alliance institution, a major or minor in a related major, and qualifying GPA can become a part of this community! (very similar to the aspirations award group described above). In addition there is also a yearly collegiate award for $7,500 for three members in their junior year or above. 

3) St. Olaf Engineering and Physics Camp for Girls this is a top notch camp for high schoolers where for a whole week you are spending the majority of your time with power tools in your hand designing a Rube Goldberg machine using solenoids, motors, and limit switches. The other part of your week? Presentations from women engineers, liquid nitrogen ice-cream, looking a Saturn through a telescope, and the best college food in the Midwest. Think Northfield, MN is too far away? Trust me, this camp is worth that trip. 

4) Women In Engineering Camp at Michigan Tech College High schoolers get ready for a week long crash course in engineering. Learn about electrical, chemical, computer, and mechanical engineering. While I was there we built submarine robots and imaged logo figures onto glass with a laser.

Didn't see something for your age group? Check the “Launch your Career in Aerospace” post. Photo descriptions in the captions.

Supposed 125mi high water plumes on Europa spotted by NASA Hubble Telescope's infrared images! https://youtu.be/4QJS9LcB66g

Our cheering faces are in an Official NASA Tumblr post. Go Cotern class of Fall 2015! You all can join us at NASA by applying for an internship, Pathways Internship (Co-Op), Recent grad program, Full Time position or become an astronaut!

So you want to work at NASA?

An out of this world career or internship might not be as far out of reach as you think. Check out all the ways you can get involved!

If you’re a student…

Our internships are the perfect place to start! We offer paid internships for spring, summer, and fall semesters to U.S. citizens currently attending an accredited university full time. Learn more at: https://intern.nasa.gov

Seriously considering a job in the Federal civil service? Check out the Pathways Internship Program which allows you to do multiple work tours while you finish school: http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/employment/iep.htm

If you’re a recent graduate…

If you’re a U.S. citizen who has graduated from an accredited college or university within the past 2 years (or 6 if you have served in the military), then the our Recent Graduates program is just for you. Accepted applicants are placed in a 1 year career development program with the possibility of an additional year, or even granted term or permanent jobs within the agency. Learn more at: http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/employment/rgp.htm.

If you’re a professional…

You can search for our job openings any time at USAJobs.com. Create an account, then use the USAJobs resume builder. Want to make sure your resume maximizes your opportunity for a job at NASA? Check out our Applicant Guide: https://applyonline.nasa.gov/applicant_guide.html.

You can then search for our job openings here: https://nasai.usajobs.gov/.

If you want to be an astronaut…

Astronaut candidate applications are accepted every few years- including right now! Get yours in before the current application closes on February 18, 2016.

Do you have a bachelor’s degree in a STEM field and 3 years of related professional experience? You might be eligible. Find out more and apply online at: https://nasai.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/423817000.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

One of my NASA mentors worked on BEAM. It's nuts to see something go from testing to orbit! #journeytomars