Episode 38: Small Spacecraft Study
11.07.07
: Tess McEnulty, Max Comess and Casey Kute, Small Spacecraft Summer Study participants
(0:00) Intro
(0:20) The deadline for NASA's Cassini Scientist-for-a-Day essay contest is Nov. 15, 2007.
Cassini Scientist-for-a-Day Contest →
Cassini-Huygens Mission →
Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn
(1:27) Interview with Tess McEnulty, Max Comess and Casey Kute. College students Tess McEnulty, Max Comess and Casey Kute describe their role in developing a lunar science orbiter as part of the first annual Small Spacecraft Summer Study Project.
2007 Small Spacecraft Summer Study Project →
(13:21) End
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Transcript
Deana Nunley: Deana Nunley: This is NASA Student Opportunities -- a podcast connecting high school and college students with learning opportunities inside America's space agency.
Episode 38. Nov. 7, 2007. I'm Deana Nunley.
How would you like to be a NASA scientist for a day and help select the next imaging opportunity for NASA's Cassini spacecraft? A new NASA contest challenges middle school and high school students to do just that.
Cassini has provided unprecedented views of Saturn and its rings and moons since arriving at the planet more than three years ago. NASA scientists have picked four possible targets for Cassini's cameras to take images of on Nov. 30, 2007. Students decide which target Cassini will image next by writing an essay about the target they think is the most interesting and scientifically significant.
Essays will be divided into two groups for grades five through eight and nine through 12, with one winner chosen from each division. The deadline is Nov. 15, 2007. The winners’ schools will participate in a teleconference with Cassini scientists.
For more information about the Cassini Scientist-for-a-Day contest, see this week's show notes. Go to
www.nasa.gov/podcast and click on the NASA Student Opportunities podcast.
[Music]
A half-dozen graduate and undergraduate students spent their summer working with NASA Ames Research Center in California to develop a mission concept for a lunar science orbiter. The objective is to study lunar weather and its consequences for future lunar exploration.
The first annual Small Spacecraft Summer Study Project is a partnership between NASA Ames; the University of California, Santa Cruz; the University Affiliated Research Center; and the University of California, Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory.
Graduate and undergraduate students work with scientists and engineers on trade studies to optimize the science return while minimizing cost as part of the overall effort to develop a competitive mission proposal. During the 12-week summer study, students attend lectures and receive practical training from NASA and Space Sciences Laboratory mentors.
Today, we'll talk with three of the student participants. Let's begin with brief introductions.
Casey Kute: My name is Casey Kute. I am an undergraduate at Santa Clara University practicing mechanical engineering. I am originally from Louisville, Ky., and I will graduate in June.
Tess McEnulty: And I'm Tess McEnulty. I am originally from Michigan, grew up in the upper peninsula of Michigan, and then went to the University of Michigan for my undergraduate degree and got that degree in aerospace engineering. And then after that, [I] spent a year at JPL [Jet Propulsion Laboratory], working full time. And now I decided I want to go into planetary science, so I'm going to be starting a Ph.D. in planetary science at Berkeley in the fall.
Max Comess: I'm Max Comess and am a graduate student in physics. I am currently working on a Ph.D., and originally from Venice, Calif. I don't know when I'm going to be graduating, hopefully sometime by 2010. But that could be a best guess. I don't know.
Deana: Let's talk about your involvement with NASA. Tess, could you give us an overview of the 2007 Small Spacecraft Summer Study Project?
Tess: All right. The summer studies are actually six students working on it from the area around here in California, and we're trying to design a lunar orbiting satellite that is a low-cost, low-mass mission. So, some of the students are actually working on the design of the spacecraft, and then one of the students is working on figuring out what sort of orbit will take us to the moon. And then Max and I are working on the science of the mission and the instruments that you need on the spacecraft and what sort of things we'd want to be measuring at the moon.
Deana: Casey, what's your role on the project?
Casey: Like I said, I'm studying mechanical engineering. And what I'm working on this summer is figuring out where to place all of the instruments and various components of the spacecraft so that we have a spin-stabilized spacecraft so that we don't have to have as much attitude control software and various components like that. [I am] figuring out where to place the components and then also making sure the structure is strong enough to be able to handle the forces during launch and then during just our regular orbit, and doing what we want to do.
Deana: Are you in the design phase now, or are you already into development of hardware?
Casey: We're only in the design phase, so it's just a concept right now. So it's doing a lot of trade studies trying to figure out -- "So this is one component we have, but here's another one by a different manufacturer. We really like this one because it's low-cost, but this one's low-mass." And so [we are] going back and forth and trying to figure out the pros and cons of everything, and picking the right size material for everything, and just getting everything to work together.
Deana: What will the student involvement be with the project once your summer internships have ended?
Casey: They're hoping to have students -- not necessarily the six of us that are currently working on it -- but students in the future continue with the project, and see it through the rest of the design phase, and hopefully into fabrication.
Deana: So that opens up opportunities for other students who might be interested in participating in the same learning opportunity that you've been involved with.
Casey: Absolutely.
Tess: I know even if this particular mission doesn't continue, Ames [Research Center] would like to have other small spacecraft studies like this. They won't necessarily be going to the moon, but they'll be studying other cool things that students can be involved in.
Deana: What advice would you offer to students who would consider this NASA learning opportunity, or maybe some other learning opportunity with NASA?
Casey: Know what you want, as far as career choice and your interests. But then, also, don't be afraid to take something that's a little bit outside of your comfort zone, your learning zone or your career path. This is [not] originally what I thought was something I wanted to do. Spacecraft was not something I was originally interested in. Although I don't necessarily see myself continuing on and always doing spacecraft, there's so many nuances that you learn in the details of doing a spacecraft like this that you can take and apply to almost any other engineering profession. Also, [you learn] a lot of the bureaucracy details of NASA, of working within a larger organization and trying to figure [it] out. So, you have a need, and how do you get that need met, and how do you meet their needs, and just getting that kind of relationship going.
Deana: Are you glad that you participated in this project, and would you do it again if you had the opportunity?
Tess: Yeah. Definitely. The reason why I decided to become involved in this project is because I'm going from an engineering background to a science background. So I figured this summer would be a good opportunity for me to start learning about the science, and ease into that before I actually start my Ph.D. So I think that I've learned a lot of the background science and a lot of things that are not really technical, like how these projects actually come together in a conceptual stage like this, how you are talking to different people and different companies. We have also been looking at the NASA announcement of opportunity just as a guideline example of what sort of restrictions you would have when you are trying to come up with an idea for a spacecraft like this. Just getting to know that has been really interesting and helpful for the future. So, yeah, I would definitely do it again.
Casey: I think for me, like I said before, although I don't necessarily see myself continuing in spacecraft, dealing with all of the interconnected[ness] of engineering and science. That has been the biggest thing for me because I go to the school of engineering, and so I don't see the science side of it too much. The physics and everything are removed from my educational studies. But coming in here [I’m] saying, "Well, I can't just go and build a spacecraft sitting on my own. I have to talk to scientists and figure out, all right, so where do you need the instruments to sit?" But also tell them at the same time, "You know I don't know how much of your requirement I can give you, because we do have a spin-stabilized spacecraft, so we have to have other engineering requirements." Learning to mesh that, I think, is going to be really good for any future work that you are going to do, because you will be able to incorporate everybody's ideas and just work in a team much better.
Max: And I would say for myself, as somebody who has had pretty much a strictly theoretical background and hasn't set foot in a lab too often, coming out here and dealing with engineers and program managers and all kinds of different people has definitely been a very helpful learning experience to see that you have to work within real-world constraints. And it's been a very interesting experience. I would probably do it again.
Deana: Would that be the primary thing you have learned during this internship, just getting to see other people from other facets and how it all comes together, or what else have you learned during the internship?
Max: I have learned a lot about how space missions are constructed, so that's been very helpful. I didn't know much about how NASA actually ran or how a space mission is put together, only having just seen it from the outside. I thought, "Well, NASA's cool and space is cool." But it's good to know how the process actually works.
Deana: Do you expect the experiences you've had with NASA this summer to impact your future?
Max: You would hope so.
Casey: Yeah [laughter]. Yeah, I mean, just getting that team environment and realizing nobody can work by themselves, and giving that push and pull of figuring out between scientists and engineers and project managers and cost management and scheduling. There are so many more things, I think, than any of us ever expected that we would have to pay attention to. We can't just worry about our system. We have to worry about its interactions and our interactions with everything around us. So I think it was much more integrated than I ever expected. It is definitely really interesting to see that, and I think that would help with any future work I do with NASA and in regular industry, figuring out how to work in teams.
Deana: Do you feel that you gained technical insight during the internship that maybe you would have not gained in a classroom?
Tess: Yeah, definitely. It is different for me because I had actually worked full-time on spacecraft for a year, but what has been different about this internship is that I am working on the science part of it and actually looking at instruments that you'd use on a spacecraft. And that's not something you are going to find in a typical classroom. When you're studying physics, they are not going to go into the instruments.
Max: You just assume you can make any measurement you want.
Casey: Yeah. I think the part for me that's been kind of the out-of-classroom experience has been figuring out how you actually analyze the mechanical structure of a spacecraft. Because in my studies, you give the simple things of a plate with uniform loading or very simple things, and you can usually combine them. In a classroom, you might go one step beyond that and take two different kinds of loading. But here, there [are] so many forces acting on the spacecraft, and you have to have a factor of safety so that nothing fails. And [you are] figuring out, "So, if you use a certain kind of material, what does that do?" But if you use a more high-tech one that is much more difficult to analyze, then you have to go to simpler case of just uniform loading, when you know that that's not the case it's going to be under and that's not the environment it's going to experience. But it's at least a first guess. From there, you can kind of refine things if you need to or just go with a larger spacecraft if you have the room.
Deana: Casey Kute, Max Comess and Tess McEnulty -- sharing thoughts about their experience with this new NASA learning opportunity. Students who participate in the Small Spacecraft Summer Study receive $15 to $20 per hour. You can find more information by following the link in this week's show notes. Go to
www.nasa.gov/podcast, and click on the NASA Student Opportunities podcast.
We want to hear from you. If you have any questions or comments about NASA learning opportunities, send an e-mail to:
educationpodcast@nasa.gov
Thanks for listening.
NASA Student Opportunities is a podcast production of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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