{"id":5781,"date":"2016-09-12T03:25:54","date_gmt":"2016-09-11T19:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/whats-like-interning-nasas-jet-propulsion-laboratory\/"},"modified":"2022-12-07T13:07:44","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T05:07:44","slug":"whats-like-interning-nasas-jet-propulsion-laboratory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/whats-like-interning-nasas-jet-propulsion-laboratory\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s it like interning at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory?"},"content":{"rendered":"

For most of us, the \u2018final frontier\u2019 is only accessible by immersing ourselves in a science fiction book, film or television series. But that doesn\u2019t apply to a Curtin mechatronics student, whose designs for a smartphone-sized robot could be used on future missions by NASA to locations such as Mars, Jupiter\u2019s moon Europa and Saturn\u2019s moon Enceladus.<\/p>\n

Chris Norman recently took part in a six-month internship<\/a> at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory<\/a> (JPL) \u2013 a research facility based in Pasadena, California that conducts cutting-edge work in Earth science, planetary exploration and technology development.<\/p>\n

Norman primarily spent time on JPL\u2019s PUFFER (Pop-Up Flat Folding Explorer Robots) project<\/a>, where he was tasked with helping to design the physical components of diminutive pop-up robots that will eventually be sent to drive across alien terrains inaccessible to larger rovers.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, the concept is that instead of having a suite of instruments, like the Curiosity rover [stationed on Mars], which costs billions of dollars, you downscale and only include one or two instruments, plus a temperature sensor, radiation sensor and camera,\u201d says Norman.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the advantage of having it unfold and fold is that when it takes a bit of a drop, it\u2019s able to collapse in on itself and take the impact. To an extent it\u2019s like suspension in a car.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pictures
The robot, before and after it “pops up” (photo credit: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Norman worked in a team alongside five \u201csuper casual\u201d and \u201creally passionate\u201d t-shirt and shorts-clad JPL engineers, who designed other elements of the pop-up robot, such as the electronics, circuit boards and folding structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used modelling software to create the parts I needed, and they would come out of a state-of-the-art 3D printer within two hours. Then I\u2019d take them, clean them, test them and fit them against the rest of the structure. I had to turn out designs really quickly,\u201d says Norman.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing around people so successful pushed me to succeed. Everybody had their masters or PhDs \u2013 they were incredibly, incredibly knowledgeable and self-driven \u2013 and the way they tackled [seemingly impossible] problems astounded me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norman would also prepare the robots for the cold environment on Mars, placing the components in an oven-like liquid nitrogen tank, which was \u201cpreheated\u201d, as he jokingly describes it, to -135\u00b0C to see how they performed during extreme drops in temperature.<\/p>\n

\"Chris
Chris Norman, during his internship (photo credit: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe internship felt totally surreal to me even when I was over there. Honestly, there wasn\u2019t a day that passed where I didn\u2019t think, \u2018Wow, this is absolutely incredible\u2019,\u201d says Norman.<\/p>\n

Working a 9\/80 Work Week \u2013 80 hours over a nine-day period \u2013 might have been exhausting for some, but it was ideal for Norman, who used the extra day off to take part in activities, such as exploring California\u2019s beaches and snowboarding at its mountains, which allowed him to better connect with the JPL staff who accompanied him.<\/p>\n

Now, settling into Perth life, it\u2019s back to business for the fourth-year Curtin student, who will continue his engineering studies and begin a thesis project, which will involve writing a program to detect the location of craters in high-resolution images of Mars.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything I\u2019ve learnt during my classes, like the technical skills and the practical project work, has been really, really good. Instead of just sitting in the classroom, we\u2019re spending six to ten hours a week in the labs, actually doing projects, building robots,\u201d Norman says.<\/p>\n

After completing the internship, Norman has now decided that he will move towards innovative research and development work in engineering in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to work on projects and ideas that are brand new and fresh. Whether they end up being sent to space or remain on Earth doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"Artist
The diminutive robots could be used on future missions to other planets and moons within our solar system (photo credit: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Curtin mechatronics student Chris Norman shares his experience about building smartphone-sized robots with his colleagues while interning at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4275,"featured_media":5782,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-5781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-and-global-community"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"Mechatronic Engineering","qualification":"Bachelor of Engineering","link":"http:\/\/courses.curtin.edu.au\/course_overview\/undergraduate\/mechatronic-engineering","description":"Mechatronic engineers push technology to new frontiers as they work to create smarter products, devices and processes.
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\nAs a mechatronic engineering student, you will design and maintain electronic and computer-controlled systems, including power generators, mining and chemical plant machinery, and intelligent machines such as unmanned aerial vehicles and autonomous robots.","faculty":"Science and Engineering"}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/IMG_0675.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Curtin","last_name":"University","display_name":"Curtin University"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-17 11:24:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4275"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5781"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=5781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}