NASA Kennedy Space Center
June 3 – August 16, 2019
Goals of your project/s:
The goal of my project was to assist in the development of a method to inspect the windows of spacecraft in orbit, such as the International Space Station. Another goal was to document this method and design a prototype to accommodate the needs of the inspection method, as well as the astronauts.
Describe what you did during the internship.
During my internship, I helped to establish the method for inspecting defects in the window. This was accomplished using a cross-polarization system to observe birefringence caused by stress fields in the glass from defects. I also used precision optical components to build an in a lab set up to inspect the windows, so that exact angles and distances could be recorded. Along with this, I was able to design a prototype using computer-aided design software, which they will be working on in the future.
Did you achieve your goals? What were the results and conclusions?
I achieved most of the goals that I was tasked with. I was able to establish a reliable and reproducible method for inspecting the windows using precise optical equipment. However, I did not complete the design portion of the prototype, but I was able to hand over a solid base with which they can build off of and modify based on the challenges that may arise throughout the rest of the project.
Describe positive lessons learned from this experience:
One of the positive lessons that I learned was that you are going to fail at times, but if you keep your head down and keep working hard eventually you will be able to push past obstacles that at one point seemed impossible. I also learned that it is okay to ask for help. It can sometimes be intimidating, but I learned so much from asking my mentors questions when I got stuck. I realized that a lot of the issues that I would encounter were issues that my mentors had also faced, and using their previous knowledge in those situations made it easier for me to figure out what to do.
Describe negative lessons learned from this experience:
I would say it is hard to have negative lessons from this experience. This does not mean that I didn’t make mistakes, because that would be far from the truth. In my experience at Kennedy, the people I worked with made it very easy to look at things from a positive perspective. I would say the only negative lessons, were the mistakes that I didn’t learn from.