Category: 2023 Summer Final Reports

Final Goals of your Project/s:

Going into this summer, I wanted to get as much exposure to Johnson Space Center as I could. I also wanted the opportunity to work directly with hardware by designing and testing components. I have had two major focuses in this summer’s internship: testing of the PLSS Auxiliary Feedwater Supply Assembly (AFSA) and test data analysis. My goals for AFSA testing included completion of water pressure testing and post-testing analysis. For the test data analysis, my goal was to successfully verify all requirements from the PLSS specification document relevant to the testing and then document my analysis in a report.

Describe what you did during your internship:

During the internship, I got the opportunity to work directly with hardware. I formed my own test schematic and procedures. Then retrieved the parts and built the test circuit. After the test was set up, I conducted several test series while collecting data and drawing conclusions based on anomalies that occurred. These kinds of experiences increased my confidence with the hardware and how the system works as a whole. In addition to working with the hardware, I conducted data analysis on full space suit portable life support system (PLSS) tests. I built a good understanding of how the PLSS works by creating plots in MATLAB and analyzing the trends in the data to draw conclusions on what they mean. Outside of my projects, I participated in multiple lectures and tours. This helped me network as well as gain knowledge about NASA and my career.

Did you achieve your goals? What were the results?:

I achieved several of my goals during my internship this summer. I cannot say that I was disappointed at all about the work I put in or the things I was involved in. As a result of the hard work, I learned a lot about space suits, hardware, and collecting/interpreting data. I also learned a lot about the other branches at Johnson Space Center. It was important that I took the initiative to reach out to others and get involved because there was a lot to learn outside of my project team.

Describe positive lessons learned:

I learned throughout the internship just how much there is to be involved in through NASA. There are a lot of different exciting technologies I could work with, and I could almost certainly find the right place for me. I also found that I love working with hardware and new product development.

Describe negative lessons learned:

One thing I found is that you get back what you put in. In most cases, there aren’t projects set aside for you already and there isn’t clear direction on what to get involved in. If you’re interested in getting involved whether it’s socially, informationally, or with projects you need to take the initiative early on or the summer will pass by, and you may miss your chance.

Final Goals of your Project/s:

ARED DATA TROUBLESHOOTING
– Determine issues with resistive exercise device sensor data collection system
– Create a procedure to troubleshoot
– Use ground test units to mimic on-orbit conditions for issue-sourcing

MARKERLESS MOTION CAPTURE
– Integrate system with OpenSim and SWRI data processing pipelines
– Test system inside the ISS mockups
– Look into more advanced data processing systems ASCR DATABASE
– Create a database for Astronaut Strength, Conditioning, and Rehabilitation teams
– Frontend system for data input and visualization
– Add AI models to study data to find trends that humans can’t see

ZERO-G CALORIE BURN
– Determine a method of how to measure calorie burn in space
– Develop a new algorithm to live-calculate based on the systems already in orbit
– Understand crew member exertion to inform the nutrition team about calorie needs

Describe what you did during your internship:

I did a lot this summer with my team! There were a lot of interns in our group this session which allowed us to expand our reach and pick up the pace at the same time. I worked on a good number of projects – some of which I also started working on in the spring, but others were new to me this session. I learned a few new programming languages, got exposure to database/website development workflows, and got more exposure to the nitty gritty mechanics of flying things to space. I also met a lot of scientists, physiologists, cardiologists, kinesiologists, and more. In my PAXC employee resource group, I also continued building my network with high-level NASA administrators and got an intern trip planned for off-site interns from across the country to come to JSC.

Did you achieve your goals? What were the results?:

I’ve made a lot of progress on my goals this summer. Our projects gained a lot of momentum this summer and we did a good job of setting the fall intern class up for success. The calorie-burning project was a later addition to my project portfolio, and it’s going to take a long time to complete, so I’ll be working on it with school partners at UI this coming year as part of a senior design/honors thesis project as well.

Describe positive lessons learned:

I continued to build upon my spring internship with regard to my networking, socialization, and performance goals. I benefit everyday from the extra effort I put into making new friends and discovering new opportunities. Most of the time, people say “no” to things not because it’s actually against the rules but because they don’t know (and they’re almost always not the right person to ask in the first place). You just have to keep pushing!

Describe negative lessons learned:

I learned so much about how people fly things to space and what to do when things don’t work the way we want them to. Patience, resilience, negotiation – all skills I didn’t know I needed as much as I really do.

Impact: This internship session has allowed me to work with new people in new roles. Since I’ve had some experience in the spring with this team already, I was able to step into new shoes and explore more of what our branch does with Flight Operations. It’s a super unique opportunity that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. I’m also meeting new people both inside and outside of NASA that I can connect with for masters programs or other opportunities after my undergraduate time.

Final Goals of your Project/s:

The Water Processing Assembly (WPA) is one of the many complex systems on the International Space Station. It is responsible for recycling sweat and urine into potable water, reducing the amount of water needed to supply the station. Leto is an ongoing Collins Aerospace project to predict failures in life support systems with the purpose of creating remaining useful life models for various components. My main role was to develop a machine-learning model for general-purpose anomaly detection, which if successful, could be included as a feature in Leto to analyze any life support system for potential upcoming failures.

In addition to Leto, I also contributed to the Haughton-Mars Project (HMP). This is a long-running project to determine how humans would live and work on Mars, and its scope extends far beyond this report. My task was to help develop and improve a piece of software known as Hodos, a voice-and-motion-operated user interface displayed on a pair of augmented reality glasses. This technology reveals vital statistics and allows the user to view their position and objectives on an interactive, 3-dimensional map. My tasks were to improve the user interface layout, add new information to the heads-up display, and improve the motion controls for navigating the map. I worked on this project in parallel with Leto throughout the Summer.

Describe what you did during your internship:

For the Leto project, my original task was to create a remaining useful life model for a filter in the WPA. Unfortunately, the lack of sensors around this filter proved prohibitive. After a week of trying and failing to work around this restriction, my supervisor instead directed me to flesh out a concept for anomaly detection in the WPA using machine learning. The ML technique is designed to analyze a set of relevant sensor data for any given day and to determine whether it is unusual. To find the most effective parameters for the algorithm, I wrote a set of algorithms dubbed the “anomaly pipeline” in Jupyter Notebook, which would access a database of WPA data, train hundreds of ML algorithms, score them based on some criteria that I modified over the summer, and return the model with the best score.

I designed a new layout for Hodos as shown in my report. This interface is displayed on a set of augmented reality glasses and a small screen external to the analog spacesuit, both with the same layout. To improve the testing experience, I also added indicators for the device’s battery percentage and CPU temperature. Hodos is mainly operated using voice commands, but the user may also navigate the map using a proprietary smart glove. The glove’s motion controls were originally far too sensitive, but after I turned the sensitivity down and extended the dead zones on the more sensitive axes, the other project members found the glove easier and even fun to use.

Did you achieve your goals? What were the results?:

For the Leto project, although I cannot reveal the precise set of metrics gathered in the data access phase or the most successful scoring methods used, I can say that most attempts resulted in models with poor adaptability or too little sensitivity. Some phases of the WPA’s history seem harder to generalize than others; many models performed well when testing on recent data but seemed incapable of getting coherent results on data deeper into the WPA’s history.

More effective methods to score the models could be developed, but by the end of the internship, I was beginning to opine that our current machine-learning algorithm might have limited utility. On the positive, we found useful techniques for visualizing the data. Hodos is a prototype and is still very much a work in progress, and it is still missing many useful features that would be useful on real missions, such as displays for oxygen and water levels. If the external display proves more intuitive to use than the AR glasses, a special interface layout for the screen would be a welcome addition.

The number of other hardware components makes setting up Hodos a lengthy endeavor even before adding vital sensor connections, but it should be possible to streamline the process somewhat with better software automation and clear error messages when a device is connected incorrectly. Despite our efforts earlier in the Summer, Hodos still cannot download and save a map from ArcGIS for offline use, but our testers can work around it for now by starting Hodos while connected to the internet and moving the map camera along the desired route.

Describe positive lessons learned:

Trying and failing is an important part of research and development. In many cases, finding a method that won’t work is just as important as finding one that does. Who you work with is just as important as how passionate you are about the work itself. Luckily, this job scored well in both metrics.

Describe negative lessons learned:

The aerospace industry is highly bureaucratic. As an example, it took me the better part of a month to install the software necessary to make my contributions to the Haughton-Mars Project. As another example, I had my report done by August 10, but it only got approved for export yesterday. When budgets are tight due to a fellow subsidiary having to fix faulty engines, internal research and development is among the first things to get its funding cut. Collins Aerospace is a large company, and although I had a good time overall, experiences can vary among individuals.

Impact: Having an internship in a part of the country I’ve never been to before was a fun experience, and this may be a good career path for me. The next step is to decide whether I want to continue this project next summer or strike off on a new adventure. In the former case, my qualifications would be obvious, and if I do the latter, the experience will enable me to get into almost any related job. This internship was important regardless of which path I take.