NASA?s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program Office maintains a year-round educational program for undergraduate and graduate students. Within NASA?s Goddard Space Flight Center, the Exploration and Space Communications Projects Division implements the SCaN intern program with a focus on space operations, including operations of orbiting spacecraft, space communications, ground activities and networking. The intern program enables students to work with various NASA projects in solving real-world problems inside the Exploration and Space Communications division. Goddard interns have been assigned to the NASA?s Near Earth Network facilities in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Wallops, Virginia. They have also been assigned to NASA?s Space Network facilities in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Las Cruces, New Mexico

Shaw, Harry C.

Vilevac, Sandra

Vithlani, Seema

NASA Technical Reports Server

 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 
 
 
 
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Education and Outreach at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight 
Center 
Harry C. Shaw1, Sandra Vilevac2, Seema Vithlani3 
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771 
NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program Office maintains a year-
round educational program for undergraduate and graduate students. Within NASA’s 
Goddard Space Flight Center, the Exploration and Space Communications Projects Division 
implements the SCaN intern program with a focus on space operations, including operations 
of orbiting spacecraft, space communications, ground activities and networking. The intern 
program enables students to work with various NASA projects in solving real-world problems 
inside the Exploration and Space Communications division. Goddard interns have been 
assigned to the NASA’s Near Earth Network facilities in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Wallops, 
Virginia. They have also been assigned to NASA’s Space Network facilities in Greenbelt, 
Maryland, and Las Cruces, New Mexico. 
I. Introduction 
he Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) intern program maintains a variety of opportunities for 
students from high school through post-graduate studies to interact on NASA projects and experience working 
in the NASA environment. Students who are U.S. citizens have three main paths to internships with the SCaN intern 
program: 1.) NASA-university internships are competitive opportunities arranged in partnership with universities that 
have ties to NASA. 2.) NASA internships are competitive opportunities for summer, fall and spring internships with 
NASA. 3.) NASA-contractor internships are competitive opportunities for internships created by NASA contractors, 
with employment by the contractor. The majority of SCaN student interns participate during a 10-week summer 
internship. During the 2017 summer session, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center had approximately 300 interns, 
of which 58 were in the Exploration and Space Communications Projects Division. The division supports the NASA 
headquarters SCaN Program Office and implements SCaN’s intern program. Students from the high school level to 
the graduate level are involved. Each intern is assigned a mentor who works closely with the intern and provides 
guidance in executing summer projects. The summer 2017 interns worked on individual projects and had opportunities 
to attend classroom lectures by mentors in topics such as the basics of space communications, guidance and navigation. 
Some interns were able to visit NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, which is operated by NASA’s Near Earth 
Network project. The internship program also scheduled a collaboration and innovation “boot camp,” hosted lunch-
and-learn discussions and held several social functions. Interns managed by Goddard contractors were also integrated 
with the government interns such that no distinction was made.  
In addition to a robust intern program, the SCaN program works with educational institutions in other ways, 
including supporting academic capstone projects related to NASA and providing guest lecturers to describe the various 
disciplines (such as space communications) involved in accomplishing successful space projects. These activities 
augment the existing curricula of partner institutions. 
 
 
                                                          
1 Staff Engineer, Space Network Project, Greenbelt, MD, 20771 
2 STEAM Engagement: Intern Coordinator & Instructional Designer, Exploration and Space Communications Projects 
Division/ASRC Federal, Greenbelt, MD 20771 
3 Technical Publications Manager, Exploration and Space Communications Projects Division/ASRC Federal, 
Greenbelt, MD 20771 
T 
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20180003227 2019-08-31T16:34:45+00:00Z
 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 
 
 
 
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II. Goals of the Intern Program 
The main goals of the SCaN intern program at the Exploration and Space Communications division are to: 
 Foster teamwork and camaraderie among students in completing projects 
 Teach students how to attack real-world problems and find solutions 
 Develop students’ technical writing skills 
 Develop students’ public presentation skills 
 Augment formal classroom training 
Throughout the course of a SCaN internship, students are required to make presentations and communicate the 
status of their activities to project managers and SCaN leaders. They learn to work with students from different 
backgrounds and manage themselves to achieve team objectives. The intern coordinators set up various activities for 
the summer interns. Figure 2 displays some of the activities that have been organized to enhance the summer intern 
experience and acclimate students to the NASA environment. 
 
Figure 1. The activities were available to student interns in 2017 to promote awareness of NASA concepts, foster collaboration 
and teach critical thinking. 
A. The Intern Ambassador Program 
NASA SCaN’s intern coordinators are maturing a program to help interns return to their communities and spread 
information about the intern experience. They are also compiling data on intern experiences and using the feedback 
to improve future summer internship sessions. Co-author Sandra Vilevac is developing the Ambassador Program at 
Goddard to extend intern experiences beyond the internship. Figure 3 summarizes the approach for this program. 
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Figure 2. The intern Ambassador Program is under development at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. 
III. Scope of the Internships 
A. NASA-University Internships 
Universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) maintain a four-week, mid-semester 
internship program between the fall and spring semesters in which select students come to Goddard to work on NASA 
projects. The students focus on short projects of a highly technical nature. Within the Exploration and Space 
Communications division, MIT student interns have worked on projects such as CubeSat instrument development and 
development of laser ranging concepts for a CubeSat mission. A student’s final poster is shown in Figure 4. 
Goddard also maintains relationships with universities that are closely associated with NASA facilities, both 
geographically and operationally. For instance, Goddard has a relationship with the University of Alaska at Fairbanks 
through which student interns can get experience working on a NASA Near Earth Network ground station there, which 
is operated by the university. In the next round of planned activities, the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and the 
Near Earth Network project will: 
 
 Make a junior operator internship position available to a University of Alaska student. 
 Design, develop and deliver two teaching modules at the Alaska Summer Research Academy (ASRA) each 
year of the grant during the ASRA two-week summer academy. 
 Provide tuition, housing or transportation scholarships for secondary students to attend ASRA; the 
scholarship is targeted for students living off the road system in Alaska or those in Alaska with demonstrated 
travel hardships. 
 Partner in other existing educational efforts as opportunities arise. 
 
NASA Goddard will expand this activity to New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico, which is 
geographically situated near NASA’s White Sands Complex and has been a source of student interns. 
 
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Figure 3. An MIT student intern’s poster above summarizes his 2018 internship activities. 
B. NASA Internships and NASA-Contractor Internships 
NASA internships, coordinated by the Goddard Office of Education, comprise the majority of internship activity 
within the Exploration and Space Communications division. Students apply through a common website 
(https://ossi.nasa.gov/ossi/web/public/main/), which permits them to search all opportunities throughout NASA that 
have been posted by NASA mentors. Mentors and potential students can evaluate each other and determine if a good 
fit exists between the two parties for an internship. Figure 5 summarizes the demographics of the 2017 student cohort 
for Exploration and Space Communications division.  
2017 summer interns were assigned to projects at: 
 The Near Earth Network in Greenbelt, Maryland 
 The Near Earth Network in Wallops, Virginia 
 The Space Network in Greenbelt, Maryland 
 The Space Network at the White Sands Complex in Las Cruces, New Mexico 
The internships last 10 weeks and cover a wide range of space operations, communications and navigation topics. 
Some internships concentrate on practical aspects of space operations, and some concentrate on theoretical topics. A 
sample list of topics from 2017 is shown in Table 1. 
 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 
 
 
 
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Figure 4. Shown above are the demographics for the 2017 Exploration and Space Communications division summer cohorts. 
 
Intern Projects 
Cyber Security Risk Identification and Communication 
Search And Rescue Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and Components  
Assessment for the U.S. Coast Guard 
User-Initiated Services Technology Maturation 
Genetic Algorithm Application in Analyzing Performance in Network 
Response to Variations in User Needs 
TDRS-M Mission Launch Campaign 
GPS Signal Simulator 
Optical/Quantum Communications 
Solid-State Quantum Communications 
Forward-Error Correction Code for Optical Communications 
Deployable High-Gain Antenna for CubeSats 
High-Efficiency, Solid-State Power Amplifiers for CubeSats 
Table 1. The table shows a sample of 2017 Exploration and Space Communications division summer intern projects. 
 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 
 
 
 
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Students work on individual projects or as team members on group projects. Interns present their contributions to 
their project at the end of the internship. Figure 6 shows an example of the level of content expected from interns. 
 
Figure 5. Shown above are graduate student summer intern projects. On the left, the student performed prototype work for 
shape-memory alloy-based ribs for a high-gain antenna design. On the right, the student performed design work for a high-
efficiency solid-state power amplifier that was prototyped by the student. 
IV. Additional Educational Activities at Goddard 
NASA Goddard also supports engineering curricula at various universities by supporting engineering capstone 
projects and participating in university design reviews. Capstone projects generally address the complete life cycle 
of a project and may include hands-on lab activities. Capstone projects involving mission design attempt to adhere 
to NASA policy guides on project management, including: 
 NASA/SP-2014-3705 NASA Space Flight Program and Project Management Handbook 
 NASA SP-2016-6105 NASA Systems Engineering Handbook 
 Capstone projects have ranged from subsystem development to full mission concepts. Full mission capstone 
projects may require one or two semesters to complete and may include: 
 Hierarchal descriptions of requirements starting at Level 0 
 NASA-compliant work breakdown structures 
 Concepts of operations  
 Orbital parameters 
 Launch and early-orbit operations 
 Preliminary size, weight and power estimates 
 Design of major systems and subsystems 
 3D mechanical renderings 
 Thermal, mechanical stress and vibration analyses 
 Preliminary design reviews 
 Critical design reviews 
) 
 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 
 
 
 
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 Project schedules and milestones 
 Budget estimates 
After completing a full mission capstone project, students attain a feel for the processes of mission design and 
the NASA project life cycle from pre-formulation through launch and operations. One capstone project from the 
University of Florida is now being pursued as CubeSat flight project based upon original student work. 
V. Summary 
ASA’s SCaN internship program at the Exploration and Space Communications Projects Division at Goddard 
Space Flight Center provides a variety of educational outreach services to enhance understanding of space 
operations, communications and advanced technologies to students across the U.S. There are a variety of paths for 
students to get involved with the program, and students are encouraged to apply for internships. The demand for 
NASA services to support educational development of students is growing as more institutions become aware of the 
opportunities for engagement in science and engineering at all levels. 
Acknowlegements 
We would like to acknowledge the contributions of Barbara Adde, SCaN Policy & Strategic Communication 
Director at NASA Headquarters for her support of education and outreach activities within the Exploration and Space 
Communications Projects Division at Goddard Space Flight Center. 
N 


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