In honor of National Intern Day on Thursday, July 25, we are showcasing some of the talented students we’ve got working with us at our centers across the country. As a part of the Artemis generation, these students will lay the groundwork for a new era of space exploration.
Jordyn Garland is interning at Ames Research Center.
Jordyn Garland (Ames)
Jordyn Garland is interning at our Ames Research Center in California, where she is working on radiation nanoparticle research for the sterilization of water at the life support and Mars exploration branch, in life sciences and nanotechnology. At NASA, she conducts literary research, grows and tests E. coli bacteria and measures cell growth. Through studying cell behavior, her work aims to gain a better understanding of how to avoid bad cell mutations in water in space. Jordyn’s work directly impacts our future Artemis missions, for which we’ll need the ability to sterilize water in harsh environments. She is a junior at Kentucky Wesleyan College majoring in biology and chemistry with a minor in psychology.
Sarah Estep is interning at Armstrong Flight Research Center.
Sarah Estep (Armstrong)
Sarah Estep is interning at our Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, where she is a space systems engineer working on a project called Mars Glider Swarm. The project’s goal is to send a swarm of gliders to Mars that will cover large areas of the atmosphere for data sensing and collection. In order to test them, multiple gliders must be released from an Aerostat weather balloon. Sarah is making a release mechanism, called a gondola, that will hold up to six gliders and let them go remotely. From start to finish, she handles multiple aspects of the project such as designing the gondola in SolidWorks, 3D printing parts and sanding and soldering the glider’s main structure. Her gondola is on track for its first test flight at Armstrong this summer! With the help of Sarah’s work, Mars Glider Swarm will contribute to future Artemis missions by helping us better understand Mars’ atmosphere for safe human spaceflight. Sarah is a senior at Morehead State University majoring in Space Systems Engineering.
Sarah Horoiwa is interning at Glenn Research Center.
Sara Horoiwa (Glenn)
Sara Horoiwa is a SCaN Intern Project (SIP) intern at our Glenn Research Center in Ohio where she supports the Space Communications and Navigations office (SCaN) and Graphics and Visualization lab (GVIS). Currently, she is working on a lunar rover 3D model that will be used to help create a virtual reality simulation, letting users drive the rover on the Moon’s surface. She is also working on 3D models of future space technology, which will be used in a variety of settings for public outreach events, like video animations and holographic displays. The interactive experiences she creates, such as virtual reality and augmented reality, help inform the public about our future Artemis missions and Moon to Mars plans. Sara just recently graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art where she received her bachelor of arts in Game Design.
Scout Pruski is interning at NASA Headquarters.
Scout Pruski (HQ)
Scout Pruski is a Communications Intern at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. where they support the NASA TV team, NASA Digital team and STEM engagement office. As a production assistant for NASA TV, Scout helps with equipment transportation, setup, staging and testing. They just wrapped up this weekend as a production assistant on the NASA TV Apollo 50th show, which featured segments of celebrity interviews, history, forward-looking science efforts and STEM education. For NASA Digital and our STEM engagement office, they write posts for social media, shoot and produce short videos and contribute to social campaign planning. As a communications intern, they help share with the world our discoveries and future plans for exploration by educating the public on issues of science, space and technology. Scout is a junior at American University double majoring in Film Production and Dance.
James Tyler Nichols is interning at Langley Research Center.
James Tyler Nichols (Langley)
Tyler Nichols is interning at our Langley Research Center in Virginia where he is working as a NASA Academy Research Associate. Currently, his project is to demonstrate a liftoff and landing system for a new space rocket concept known as Hercules. He and his team work together to design the rocket, study the systems of the spacecraft and design and build all parts of the vehicle. To accomplish these tasks he uses 3D printers, electrical components, powerful batteries, and high-powered fans that represent the rocket engines. The goal of Tyler’s project is to show that a small scale version of Hercules can lift off, hover, move around and land safely. If he and his team can prove this, it will help NASA to further develop the Hercules concept. Tyler is a recent graduate of the University of Kentucky where he received a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and in Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering. He will be attending a graduate program in Mechanical Engineering at the same university this fall.
Andrew Chen is interning at Langley Research Center.
Andrew Chen (Langley)
Andrew Chen is interning at our Langley Research Center in Virginia where he is working as a Machine and Fabrication intern helping develop the Advanced Composites-Based Solar Sail System (ACS3), a satellite that propels itself without fuel. After launching into space, the satellite will unfold from a one-foot cube into a solar sail the size of an airliner. It will then ride the solar wind through space, bringing us to exotic destinations like near-Earth “Trojan asteroids” and the Oort Cloud. Andrew works with 3D printers to make parts for the ACS3 satellite which will enable us to begin testing a physical model. Currently, he is working on upgrading the 3D printers to use high-strength polymers by designing an open-source liquid-cooled extruder mount to manage the device’s exceedingly high temperatures. Thanks to his work, we are closer to deploying a solar-propelled space satellite –taking us farther away from Earth to previously inaccessible orbits. Andrew is a recent high school graduate who will attend Purdue University as an Aerospace Engineering freshman this fall.
Marissa Garcia is interning at Marshall Space Flight Center.
Marissa Garcia (Marshall)
Marissa Garcia is an Engineering Trainee in our Pathways Internship Program at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. Marissa’s work is part of an upcoming joint test campaign in which NASA is teaming up with an outside company to test their engine injector. Currently, her project is to prepare the test plan, test sequences, test requests and the test summary for the tuning test.
The purpose of the test plan is to determine the supply tank pressures, venturi sizes, and orifice sizes the facility test stand will need for the test. The venturis, orifices and tank pressures are the knobs that help to control the flow of the fluid (propellants) being used in the test. Marissa is the engineer that determines the size and pressures of these knobs. Marissa’s work directly impacts our future Artemis missions by helping third party vendors test their commercial rocket engines for future lunar landers. She is in the process of receiving her master’s degree from the University of Texas at El Paso in Mechanical Engineering.
Meghna Sitaram is interning at Goddard Space Flight Center.
Meghna Sitaram (Goddard)
Meghna Sitaram is interning at our Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland where she is building a setup to test software for an optical (laser) communication ground station. The setup simulates the characteristics and motions of a satellite as it would be seen by an optical ground station telescope, so that we can test its tracking software and hardware in a lab environment. She has created an optical testbed which is a complicated physical system of lenses, mirrors and lasers. Her work is an important part of a larger project: creating a ground station for communicating with satellites over optical wavelengths using commercial, off-the-shelf parts. With the ability to use commercial, off-the-shelf parts, we can build many of these ground stations to be used for satellites and future Artemis missions to the Moon! Meghna is a senior at the University of Maryland majoring in Physics and Astronomy.
Michael Hirsch is interning at Johnson Space Center.
Michael Hirsch (Johnson)
Michael Hirsch is a Crew and Thermal Systems, Design and Analysis Engineering intern at our Johnson Space Center in Texas. He is working on multiple projects to help develop the necessary technology used for human spaceflight. One project is a water capture device for the International Space Station that will gather water from a given airflow and collect it using unique air passages that require no power at all, replacing an existing system that uses the station’s energy. He helps order parts, prepare parts and work with technicians to build the experiment before it is sent to the orbital lab. Also for the International Space Station, Michael is working on a volume measurement project that will determine how full a tank is in microgravity where liquid tends to stick to the inner walls of storage containers. Michael’s job is to develop the test stand, the testing procedures and carry out the experiment in order to prove the measurement can be done. While each of his projects work toward a specific goal, the technology and methods he is creating can be applied to many different aspects of human spaceflight for our future Artemis missions. Michael is a senior at the University of North Dakota majoring in Mechanical Engineering.
Cole Striler is interning at Stennis Space Center.
Cole Striler (Stennis)
Cole Striler is a Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA) intern for our Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. As a data scientist, Cole works on SMA’s Crystal Ball project which is designed to combine Stennis’s safety data from seven separate databases to create a more streamlined collection of information for predicting future safety incidents. Cole writes code in Python for the Crystal Ball project and analyzes data to help prevent future mishaps during the process of rocket engine testing. His contributions to the safety of rocket engine testing will directly affect America’s next great rocket, the Space Launch System, that will be used during our Artemis missions. Cole is a senior at the University of California, Berkeley majoring in Data Science.
Samalis Santini De Leon is a Science and Technology Research Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Samalis Santini De León (JPL)
Samalis is a Science and Technology Research Fellow at our Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. She is working on the development and implementation of a Cognitive Assistant that will help the entry, descent and landing (EDL) of future rovers and spacecraft on the Moon and Mars. Her research seeks to explore the ability of an intelligent assistant to critically analyze a dataset and identify and communicate critical issues to a human. Currently, she is conducting simulations to analyze the performance of our Mars 2020 rover’s Terminal Descent and Landing Sensor and its robustness to failure. Samalis is a senior Ph.D. student studying Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University.
Are you interested in interning at NASA? Check out our NASA Careers site and Internship page for more information!
by Tahira Allen
NASA Headquarters
NASA Headquarters
Last Updated: July 26, 2019
Editor: Tahira Allen
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