Week 4 blog

Hello from Johnson Space Center.

And thus begins week five. 

This past week was a short four-day work week. Some of the highlights of our week include an awesome holiday, a Professional Development Workshop and hearing about Neuroscience. On Monday, NASA observed the July 4^thholiday so we given the day off. After our very busy weekend it was nice to stay home for the day and just rest and relax.

On Thursday morning we attended a professional development workshop for all JSC interns. We learned how to write our technical paper, create our PowerPoint presentation for our exit pitch and write an eye-popping resume. Then at the conclusion of our workday, we partook in our weekly INSPIRE meeting. This week a student intern presented about her neuroscience lab that tests the effects of focusing on a single point while moving. Then, our Education Specialist, Ms. Alissa Keil, taught us the value of taking chances in order to reap giant benefits.

Following is our weekly update of each project and the progress we have made.

For Brian and Kevin, the mass estimation model continued its progress and is coming together; from the program finding the total change in velocity required to calculating the total mass of the rocket. Although their mentor was on break this week, they managed to accomplish some major tasks. Now they can organize and integrate the program parts, as well as start analyzing different hypothetical rockets in order to assess the effectiveness of changes in material, engine, and fuel types, among others.

Shelby and Kelsey are enjoying their jobs and working hard. Shelby had the pleasure of arriving early to work every day this week to make up the five hours she missed last Friday. She and Kelsey had the opportunity to rename a worker's computer and run a scan on another's computer. They attended many meetings and were able to talk to some very knowledgeable people, who aided them in their SharePoint project. They were also assigned more work; they are now responsible for locating and marking every printer in MOD and creating a survey for the users of those printers. Also, they finalized the dates for their myJSC presentation and their exit presentation.

 

Christopher and Hollie had a big week as they presented their Project Build Approval. This included re-designing the presentation and build plan, again. This is not bad, but expected as this happens to engineers all the time. Their revised plan is actually better than the previous one because they have less cost and less mass. These changes made it easier for our superiors to give us the "go" sign.  Besides creating a virtual cross section of the model, we were also finally given an office. The reason for this is that in our branch, there are 9 interns with only enough desks for 5 people. However, from now on, they will be working in the lab building their mode, leaving us room in the office to work.

In addition to our daily work schedule we also stay busy each evening.  Tuesday and Thursday are our weekly project nights.  We spent this time working on several projects including our DLN presentation, vodcast, and finished working on our glog, which will soon be completed for everyone to view.  The other evenings we partake in non-work activities to reenergize ourselves.  On Monday, we spent time catching up on our errands. Wednesday we played some card games like the local favorite, Texas Hold-Em. On Thursday, after polishing our OLC Chat Presentation and actively participated in the Online Chat where Stennis and Dryden were showcased.

Friday night we went to Galveston to the beach in order to star-gaze. While our star-gazing expedition may have fallen short of the goal due to clouds and light pollution, we still had a rave. We did many things: handstands, chest bumps, wading, soccer and meditating among many other things. Shelby and Hollie went on an adventure and found a turtle which growled at them. The awesome thing about the turtle is that it is magical and disappeared when the girls took the rest of the group back to show them the horrible growling monster. It was a great night on the beach!

Our intent for Saturday was to go to the Houston Tunnels. Alas, we figured out that the website we used when we researched the open times was a conspiracy website as they are closed during the weekends. Since we were downtown, we democratically voted to go to the Holocaust Museum. Needless to say, this was a somber event but we learned a lot about our history. Following this, we went to the Galleria where Hollie, Shelby and Malorie got pedicures! Whoop whoop! Meanwhile, the boys shopped. They hit up the candy shop and American Eagle. Our main event came next: the Astro Baseball Game. This was a historic game as the Astros beat the high-rated Cardinals. The ninth inning was the best, as 2 foul balls hit by Albert Pujols made their way up and were almost caught by Malorie.

Sunday, as we sit writing our blog, we reminisce about our past week. Today we watched as Spain demolished Netherlands which made part of our group ecstatic. This was expected though as Spain is a better team. After a little rest, we are headed out to a local favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner, Abode.  Please tune in Thursday for our on-line chat.

We are rested and looking forward to another exciting week at Johnson Space Center. As of right now, "Houston, we do NOT have a problem."