Training Opportunities at NASA

The Spaceflight & Life Sciences Training Program.

Many excellent educational opportunities exist within the United States Space Program. Students from all academic areas are encouraged to get a general overview of all available programs when applying, as more than one program may be of interest.

Training exists in fields as diverse as aeronautical engineering, propulsion, mathematics, geology, astronomy, management, biology, education and business. A small sample of the types of program available include on-line workshops at primary school level, work-study programs, undergraduate internships in all fields, opportunities to conduct experiments aboard NASA’s altered-gravity KC-135 airplane, graduate level fellowships, and professional development programs. National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) employees at the Education or University Programs Offices at each NASA field center can assist in finding a suitable program for students at almost any educational level.

At Kennedy Space Center, one undergraduate program combines space biology, engineering, and ecology into a comprehensive program about life in space, and what is required to maintain a human presence in this unfamiliar environment. The Spaceflight and Life Sciences Training Program (SLSTP) is a six-week summer internship program, offering undergraduates the opportunity to work hand in hand with scientists who support current biology experiments on the space shuttle, design future habitats for the International Space Station, and to assess the impacts of shuttle and rocket launches on the local environment.

As part of the SLSTP, undergraduates spend approximately 60-70% of their time in the laboratory working on experiments and engineering projects that are currently in development or being performed at Kennedy Space Center. Typical projects include maximizing food crops by adjusting light intensities, recycling gray-water, optimizing or testing new hardware, performing experiment management functions, and using Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Global Information Sensing (GIS) Systems to evaluate the success of habitat restorations.

The remaining 30-40% of the students’ work time is spent in a series of space engineering and life sciences lectures. Each year, 20-30 visiting scientists and engineers from NASA, academia, and industry speak to the trainees about their work, how they arrived at their current position, and discuss career options with the students. The speakers and topics may vary from year to year, but generally include astronauts speaking about the challenges of working in an altered gravity environment; flight surgeons talking about changes in the body - both during spaceflight and during re-adaptation to earth’s gravity - and engineers and payload managers discussing recent life sciences missions. Other subjects that are usually presented include theories of life on Mars, new spacecraft, building the International Space Station, establishing work colonies on the moon or other planets, how NASA-developed sensing technologies can be used for commercial uses, and learning more about additional education opportunities and career options within NASA and space related industries.

As the NASA Center of Excellence for Launch and Payload Processing Systems, Kennedy Space Center is an ideal place for hosting the SLSTP. Most SLSTP alumni report that although the research experience is invaluable, a strong advantage of the program is that it allows students to form important career contacts at the center and beyond. Students meet visiting scientists from countries the world over as they perform real-time operations to prepare for a shuttle launch. Kennedy Space Center trainees experience firsthand the urgency and complexity of preparations that typically occur before a life science experiment is launched. The students also learn the value of space-flown material, and how scientists, often of several different disciplines, form coordinated teams in order to maximize the data that can be obtained from each experiment.

Other unique features of the SLSTP include the proximity of Kennedy Space Center to other environments and area attractions. Students with an interest in ecology will appreciate the diverse habitats found on the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which is co-located with KSC, supporting studies in marshes, rivers, on the ocean shore, and in scrub terrain. Likewise, threatened and endangered species of plants and animals are being monitored and habits restored using cutting-edge technologies. NASA scientists have also established collaborative hydroponics experiments with the nearby Walt Disney World EPCOT Center. Each year, students have the opportunity to get customized EPCOT tours and see large-scale vegetable gardens as they might exist on an isolated spacecraft or bases on other planets.

The SLSTP is a competitive program that accepts 25-30 students each summer, and is designed for undergraduates interested in engineering, biology, chemistry, ecology, physics, mathematics and the computer sciences. NASA selects students for the program based on Grade Point Average (GPA), letters of recommendation, general interest in NASA, and by evaluating the ability to communicate through a written essay about space and the students’ future career goals.

Students who are interested in the program but are not citizens or resident aliens in the United States may apply to the program with sponsorship from their national space agency. Interested students should contact their space agency directly to discuss an application process. If a nation does not have a space agency, the potential applicant can contact SLSTP personnel for advice on where to find sponsorship from their government. Over the next few years, it is expected that more and more countries will opt to participate in the SLSTP, as the International Space Station comes closer to completion and nations work more closely together.

The NASA Homepage at http://nasa.gov will allow the student to navigate to the Educational Office and to the University Affairs Office of the fourteen individual field centers. Information on the Spaceflight and Life Sciences Training Program is located on the Internet at http://slstp.nasa.gov.

Authors
Patricia Currier & Jerry Moyer
The Bionetics Corporation
Kennedy Space Center, FL