Podcast: Summer’s Scientists

• By Sara Mitchell
• July 31, 2009
• Comments Off on Podcast: Summer’s Scientists

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Transcript (Text, PDF)

How have you spent your summer vacation? An internship at NASA may not be the most relaxing way to spend these summer months, but for hundreds of high school and college students, it’s an opportunity to gain valuable experience. The offices and labs here at Goddard Space Flight Center overflow every summer with interns from around the country, working with their mentors to analyze data, design and build instruments, write software, solve problems, and try their hands at unraveling the mysteries of the universe.

Some of Goddard’s interns were also interested in getting a taste of science communication – so we gave them the opportunity to put together an episode of Blueshift. They share their stories of how they got here, what they’re working on, and what the future holds for their education and career plans.

Internships and Opportunities

This episode was written, recorded, and edited by summer interns here at Goddard. NASA offers a variety of opportunities for students at any level to get involved – internships, fellowships, scholarships, competitions, and more. These sites provide listings of NASA education offerings around the country:

• NASA Education Programs – Research and development opportunities for students
• NASA Higher Education – Internships, scholarships, research, and more
• NASA Academy – A ten-week intensive summer program for undergraduate and graduate students.

What Are Our Interns Working On?

Goddard’s interns are involved with many different aspects of astronomical research and development. Here are a few links that highlight the projects mentioned in this episode:

• NuSTAR – Ashley is working with the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, an X-ray mission scheduled to launch in 2011.
• Big Explosions and Strong Gravity – Svetlana is working with educational programs, especially ones for Girl Scouts. This program offers scouts a day of activities about supernovae and black holes.
• Cassini Equinox Mission – Val is working with Cassini to better understand one of Saturn’s moons, Titan. You can see more images about Titan at the NASA Photojournal.