It's Not All Rocket Sceience at NASA

My Summer at NASA

Working at NASA is quite an experience to say the least. I am starting my fifth week as an intern and I still don't have a computer or an e-mail address, but let's do a little catching up first.

After a nearly traumatic badging experience, Madeline Burgoyne and I met with our new bosses and tried to get settled in. This is my second summer at NASA so the building and the people were familiar. However, navigating building 37 can be quite a challenge. Madeline and I share an office at the back of the building with a post doc who also works for my boss Honglu Wu.

Our building is unique because it once held the quarantined astronauts and moon rocks when they returned from missions. All press conferences were done in conference rooms 1 and 2 where we hold our weekly tuesday morning meetings.

This first week was mostly about getting settled in. We started by meeting the other interns who work in our building. There are about 20 interns in our building and hundreds more across the Johnson Space Center. Students do all kinds of things from shadowing a flight surgeon to archiving.

Our department is the Human Adaptations and Countermeasure Department, the life science hub for NASA. I work in lab 1200 - the Radiation Biophysics lab - and lab 1010, where Madeline spends her days.

This first week we also did a review of cell culture, media prep, and other basic techniques that we will use throughout the summer. All in all, no major incidents occured and week 1 was completed with success!