Engineering
Engineering Student Summer Internship at NASA Glenn Research Center
Written by Richard Borders
During the summer of 2008, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to take up an internship at NASA’s Glenn Research Center (GRC) in Cleveland, Ohio. I was afforded this opportunity through the help of the Maine Space Grant Consortium, a member of the national network of consortia across the United States. The specific program I was sent under was the Maine Aerospace Workforce Development Program.
During my time at GRC, I worked on two systems: ion thrusters and a replacement part for the International Space Station. Ion thrusters use an ionized gas as their method of propulsion as opposed to chemical methods, such as those in the rocket boosters on the Space Shuttle. One of the benefits of ion thrusters is their top speed (approx. 200,000 mph, as opposed to the Shuttle’s roughly 18,000 mph).
Figure 1 Time exposure of plasma ionizer
Figure 2 International space station with two plasma contactor units
The replacement part I helped with for the space station is called a Plasma Contactor Unit, which essentially makes it so that after an astronaut goes on a space-walk, he or she doesn’t get shocked w hen they come back into contact with the station itself. This can be likened to touching a doorknob after walking around in a carpeted room and receiving a shock. Out in space, however, space is the carpet (there are still a fair amount of particles floating around at the altitude which the space station orbits), the station would be the doorknob, and if you’re lucky, you are the astronaut.
In addition to the two projects I worked on, I was included in several presentations about the happenings at NASA, and especially GRC, to include talks about the two Mars Rovers which were sent to the planet in 2005, as well as the future of America’s manned space program called the Constellation Program, which calls for the retirement of the Space Shuttle. It is to be replaced by the Ares I, a manned rocket, and the Ares V, a larger rocket for cargo. GRC is currently building the body of the Ares I-X, the experimental version of Ares I. I was taken on a tour of the facility where the ‘tuna cans’, as they are called, are built and then put together. The tentative plan is to use sections identical to the rocket boosters on the Space Shuttle and have a capsule at the tip where the people would be situated.
Here is a picture of me next to the power console (ground power system, which would be replaced by a much lighter version in space) which I helped build and wire for the testing of the replacement Plasma Contactor Unit.
