Intern Day Two: The HIVE
Intern Day Two: The HIVE
When we looked around the room there were Orion Mockups, huge displays, and technological toys we couldn’t wait to get our hands on.
After I met my mentor for the first time two fellow interns and I were briefed about our goals for the summer. This summer I’m working with NASA’s group called the HIVE (Human Integrated Vehicles & Environments). HIVE’s goal is to get new technologies in front of astronauts, operators, and users as soon as possible during development to make the technological interface human friendly. Some of the projects HIVE is working on includes user interfaces for onboard Orion, wearables to alert astronauts about important information, and test beds to simulate mock missions.
Within HIVE my main goal is to translate packets of information sent by devices on Orion’s Deep Space Habitat (DSH) and display this data in a meaningful way. For example, one of the devices on the DSH is a device which insures the habitat maintains a constant amount of power no matter how much light the solar arrays are receiving. This device is actually the same device I helped work on at my summer internship at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. Using LabVIEW programming software I translate these packets into meaningful data and display that data as a graphical user interface.
The HIVE lab were we work is a large glass room overlooking a warehouse room with Orion’s parachutes and a NASA meatball shaped simulator that used to be for acclimating astronauts to motion/ zero G sickness. HIVE has a mockup of the Orion crew helm that we have the opportunity to update as well.
Pictures of the lab coming soon!
More Posts from Ourtech and Others
Space Habitat Simulator in The HIVE lab.
It's Small Business Saturday folks! Did you know that NASA collaborates with SmallBiz on extraterrestrial projects? This summer I worked on a NASA small business project, innovating ways to create energy on Mars! I have also sat in on two SmallBiz design proposals and was blown away by the ideas for deep space travel, energy creation and resource utilization. Despite my Black Friday all-nighter I have kicked off today having breakfast at a local joint. Take time today to support SmallBiz and learn about SmallBiz projects with NASA... SmallBiz Mars Humidity Sensor Project: http://kirsikuutti.blogspot.com/2016/08/sensing-mars-nasa-co-op-2-week-nine.html NASA SmallBiz success story: http://www.spacenewsmag.com/feature/bridging-the-valley-of-death/ SmallBiz on Space Station: http://www.spacenewsmag.com/feature/starting-small-to-develop-big-ideas/ SmallBiz deals in Duluth,MN: http://downtownduluth.com/df-data/files/SBS-2016.pdf Find NASA SmallBiz Partners:https://ehb8.gsfc.nasa.gov/sbir/public/technologySearch/searchAction.do?requestFrom=NASASBIRHome
Passionate about space, football & social media? Join NASA Social at NASA's Johnson Space Center on February 1st for a pre Super Bowl LI event. Deadline noon on January 9th: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/go-behind-the-scenes-at-johnson-space-center-leading-up-to-super-bowl-li
Chamber that conditioned astronauts to zero gravity and motion sickness. Let’s just say a lot of people threw up in there. The return of the time not sick during a mission was only a 30% improvement and this was decommissioned.
Fellow Co-Op shared her experience testing Curiosity Rover's drill, Morpheous tested thrusters and students toured space structure labs.
Jackelynne Silva-Martinez presented "Behind the Scenes on the Verification and Validation (V&V) Tests of the Curiosity Rover's Robotic Arm." The Curiosity rover has been gathering data on Mars since August 2012. Jacky is a mechanical engineer who was a test operator for the MSL robotic arm during its V&V surface tests for sample acquisition, processing and handling. She tested with equipment which are a replica of the drill and the Collection and Handling for In situ Martian Rock Analysis (CHIMRA).
Engineering Structures (ES) students hosted a presentation and tour of labs that they work in for fellow Co-Ops and interns. These ES students are working on testing materials that cover Orion, untangling vibrations the Space Launch System experiences during tests and analyzing samples after the first Orion test.
ES had lab with electron microscopes, impact test tools and a 3D printing lab. From the outside the ES building looks like a bunch of office spaces but nested in the inside are many we equipped labs.
July 20th was the Moon Landing's 47th anniversary. In celebration Johnson Space hosted an ice-cream party!
Morpheus is a planetary lander capable of taking off vertically. This week Morpheus' positioning thrusters were tested to capture footage for Engineering Propulsion. The test happened outside and we had to stay in the lab to remotely operate the test. Co-Op Michael O'Donnell is working on Morpheus preparing it's fuel chambers for thermo testing.
Jupiter gets his first close-ups by NASA's Juno Space craft! Read about the successful flyby here: http://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasas-juno-to-soar-closest-to-jupiter-this-saturday/ More pictures here: https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing
Comfortably Inconclusive: NASA Co-Op #2 Week 10 & 11
This is the first internship I have completed without a definite finished product to hand over and it truly bothers me. Trials were performed with the small business made humidity sensor with three levels of humidity in order to gather different data points. From these trials a >10% difference between the humidity sensor and NASA known sensors was found. This was primarily because the sensors available to me were not calibrated so errors in the thermodynamic equations could propagate. In conclusion the trials were inconclusive. However, I left a trial rig that can be used with calibrated sensors and known humidity levels, explanation of equations used to gather data and ample documentation on how to run trials with my fluid system and data collection program. My exit presentation pictured above went really well, I was so glad the Director of Engineering Propulsion could attend my presentation!
Before my departure International Space Station astronauts gave a debrief on missions 46 and 47. British astronaut Tim Kopra and American astronaut Tim Peake narrated a video showing images from the missions and scientific experiments they performed. Kopra explained astronauts are experiments themselves and they draw blood, perform ultrasound and exercises to help advance medical science and understand how humans are affected by space travel.
I really enjoyed the multi-disipline challenges I faced this summer running trials on the humidity sensor. Right before I left my Dad and I caught Kate Rubins and Jeff Williams installing the Commercial Crew Docking Adapter outside of Space Station live! This fall I am back at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) continuing my studies in electrical engineering and computer science. While at UMD I work in the career center editing resumes, giving presentations and writing career tip posts like this: https://umdcareers.wordpress.com/2016/08/17/internships-beyond-your-project/
In the spring I will return to Johnson to Co-Op in Mission Control's ISO (Inventory and Stowage Officer) group.
WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
See what NASA was up to this week.
Read about the astronauts on space station right now!
Apply for a NASA Co-Op
Apply for a NASA Internship
NASA Co-Op Week 1: Mission Control
What Am I Doing?!
For my first post as a NASA Co-Op I’m going to skip the typical “Houston we have a problem” and “All systems go” intro and get right to the good stuff. I just completed my first week as a NASA Pathways Intern at Johnson Space Center, what NASA calls their Co-Op program. I will be flip-flopping between working at NASA and my university studying Electrical Engineering until I graduate. 98% of students get hired on full-time with NASA after a successful Co-Op experience. This fall 16 out of over 1000 applicants are Co-Oping this fall. I am thankful to be working alongside such talented and passionate people.
Flying The Space Station
I am “touring”, what we call our Co-Op work tours, in a team in Mission Control called PLUTO. No, I am not working with New Horizons, PLUTO is in charge of the Plug and Play-Ability of hardware and software on the International Space Station (ISS). I will be helping develop technology that assist astronauts in experimenting in space, writing procedures for astronauts and sitting console in Mission Control. I can’t rent a car without an extra fee but I can help fly the multi-billion dollar ISS, makes sense.
How To Get Involved
Follow my weekly posts for the Co-Op perspective, Follow NASA on Tumblr, watch what NASA is up to, and apply for an internship or Co-Op with NASA.
NASA Co-Op Week 12: Makers & 3D Printers
Well-being of a generation can be measured by the number of children who attend a Maker Faire. Houston's George R Brown Convention Center was filled with programmers, 3D printers,hand made creations, geeky gear and folks passionate about their ability to create. Houston Maker Faire featured 150 booths, soap makers, FIRST/ VEX robotics teams, LEGO builders and cosplay costume makers. Us NASA interns and Co-Ops set up a booth sharing about career opportunities, letting students share ideas with NASA and coloring pages with kids. Folks tried on an Apollo 11 helmet and space walk glove.
WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
Apply for a NASA internship open now, login to apply. Sooner the better. There are also fellowships and scholarships available: https://intern.nasa.gov/ossi/web/students/login/
Mentor a FIRST Robotics team. Teams with students age K-12:
http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/coachesmentors
Apply to be a NASA Community College Aerospace Scholar open now: https://nas.okstate.edu/ncas/
Activity sheets for students: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/about/resources/jscfacts/activity_coloring_sheets.html
Co-Op for NASA. What does this mean? Flip-flop between working at NASA and studying in college. This is how NASA hires a majority of their Civil Servants. Job openings are updated every week or so: http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/employment/opportunities.htm
Accomplishments this week at NASA: https://youtu.be/4iaScOqvI64
Full-time positions at NASA. Use this website and simply search "NASA": https://www.usajobs.gov/
