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Summerintern - Blog Posts
Intern Week 8: Pool, Control & Opportunity
Neutral Buoyancy Lab Tour A familiar faint smell of chlorine wafted in the air as we entered the Sonny Carter Training Facility. We stared at a vat containing 6.2 million gallons of water, enough to fill nine Olympic swimming pools. Looking into the lagoon, 1:1 scale International Space Station (ISS) mock-ups were resting 40 feet below. Divers went about their daily routine escorting astronauts to various modules. Astronauts practiced EVAs (Extra Vehicular Activities) learning how to repair parts of the modules. Divers would retrieve tools astronauts drop and hold a camera up to their work for instructors to see. We saw where practice EVA suits are assembled and where modules are constructed before being submerged.
Mission Control Once again we return to Current and Historic Mission Control. Apollo 11 and 13 were among the great missions flown with less computing power than your smart phones. Controls were analog and sending messages via pneumatic tubes was common.
NASA Co-Op This week I was accepted into NASA Johnson Space Center's Pathways Internship Program, what NASA calls their Co-Op program. What does this mean? I will be sworn in as a U.S. Government civil servant and switch between semesters studying Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Minnesota Duluth and working at NASA. My NASA updates will continue throughout my experience.