Sunday, June 26, 2022
By:
This week, I finally got to see the Goddard Space Flight Center campus! There was an intern picnic event on Wednesday, and I got one day visitor access to participate. In theory, Goddard is 30 minutes away from ACP. But the bus from the metro station to NASA’s front gate only leaves once an hour - so it actually took a full hour to get there. It was totally worth it though - Goddard looks like a college campus on steroids. There are 30 odd buildings, including a health and fitness center, a police building, a library, and a gift shop, in addition to the many lab/office buildings. The campus is so large that most people drive or bike everywhere. Eric met me at the gate, and we drove to the picnic pavilion for pizza. Then he gave me a tour of the high bay and mechanical lab, where many parts for EXCLAIM’s gondola are stored. I also saw our lead mechanical engineer Tatsat in person. We drove to Eric’s office in the astronomy building, and he showed me the star camera that I will be working with! Eric then introduced me to Jim, who is in charge of the flight control computer and some cryogenic containers that will house the telescope. At some point I’ll work with Jim to make the star camera talk to the computer. I worked in Eric’s office for the rest of the day before going home.
I went to ACP to work most other days. Astrometry.net software is FINALLY working on my computer, but only through the command line. Now I need to make it to work as a python program that can be uploaded to telescope hardware. Tomorrow, I will present some slides to the EXCLAIM collaboration about astrometry.net’s code structure, and the specific configuration of astrometry options that the star camera will use. On Thursday, I called the IT desk so they could install some software that was missing from my computer. We aren’t allowed to install software on work computers by ourselves, we need the IT desk to remote control our computers and install it for us. Now I am almost completely set up for work! Once I am authorized to be at NASA, I’ll be able to work much more quickly.
On Friday I had a check-in meeting with Kayla. She gave me advice on how to build and use my network. It was really nice to talk to her, and to get this advice - I am actively looking for a job to start in the fall, and I feel more confident about how to navigate the job search process with my connections now.
Outside of work, I hung out with Taylor O on Juneteenth Monday. She and I both play frisbee with our college teams, so we brought a disc to the national mall and threw it around for an hour. It turns out that NASA has its own frisbee group. If Taylor and I are both free one evening, we might be able to join them. I also helped Matangi make chocolate chip scones - I took a couple home to bake by myself and they are absolutely delicious! The interns are having a potluck this coming Tuesday - Matangi and Lucy will probably bring the rest of the scones, and Taylor and I are either making a berry cobbler or a quiche.
On Saturday, the interns showcased physics demos at the Astronomy on the Mall outreach event. My demos were “Cloud in a Bottle” and “Electromagnet!” They were both really cool and I was surprised at how many people 1. came to this event, and 2. showed genuine interest in the demos. The people who were most curious were little kids! Some of them knew so much physics already that they could explain my demo for me. I’m glad that so many people are interested in physics and astronomy, and I hope we inspired even more people to learn about the sciences.
Nicole Leung