Sam and Kristine were lovely tour guides and had clearly put a lot of thought into the day. We started off at the Science Jamboree, an annual showcase of GSFC's numerous projects. I spoke with representatives of teams from the James Webb Space Telescope (set to launch in October 2018!), the Global Precipitation Measurement (measuring raindrops from a satellite), and the scientific balloon program (it's a real thing). I also took advantage of the opportunity to do some networking and made a couple of great contacts!
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| Trying out virtual reality. |
After lunch, we headed over to Kristine's office to meet her mentor and learn more about her research, which involves investigating the magnetic properties of the Sun that cause its corona to be orders of magnitude hotter than we would expect. Then Sam's mentor cheerfully took over (by the way, he'd taken off the entire day to hang out with us) and took us around the testing facilities.
Obviously, before you send anything into space-- no matter how small or simple-- you need to test it extensively first. We got to see equipment that can bring the temperature down to tenths of Kelvins, clean rooms (from the outside), and spaces that test stability through vibration. In case you were wondering, this is where components for the James Webb Space Telescope were tested just a few months ago!
Finally, we got to see Sam's lab and her work developing technology to examine the polarity of the cosmic background radiation (in vague cliches, this is the "echoes of the Big Bang"). Basically, trying to answer questions about how the universe came to be, so you know...
I love being here!
The variety of activities and contacts this internship has provided really show amazing the opportunity has been. I was afraid you might be bogged down in committee duties. I see it is so much more than that.
ReplyDeleteI'm having so much fun!!
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