This was my last week interning at LASP at CU Boulder. This six-week experience has gone by so fast and I feel like I have learned so much; not only about astrophysics but also about living independently, college life, and what I would like to major in later.
On Monday of this last week, I was given my final project. my project was to design and construct a board that would hold resisters to test the power output of the control boards. Testing the power output because if there is not enough power then the hardware in the flat sat will not turn on, and if there is too much it could fry the mechanisms. For my resister board, I designed two towers, each with four metal 0.5″ plates that we would then drill threaded holes to hold the resisters in place. underneath each plate, there would be a heatsink that would keep the resisters from overheating. each tower would be supported by four 15″ poles on each corner.
On Tuesday, by using the equation V=IR (voltage = current x resistance), I began calculating the resisters for each of the circuit boards we were testing the power for. I also began machining the eight plates that I designed. On the mill, I drilled the four holes on each board that would have the 15″ posts go through them.
On Wednesday I continued machining my design. Underneath each heatsink, I put a thin plate underneath so we didn’t have to drill holes in the heatsink instead could just sandwich it between the plates with the resisters and the thin plate underneath. I also met an electrical engineer named Will who taught me about resisters and helped me calculate the resister values for each different voltage.
On Thursday I drilled the final threaded holes for the resister plates and we were finally able to start assembling. First, we put 4 bolts on the poles along with one of the thin plates we machined. Then using a level we adjusted the heights of the bolts so that they sat even on all 4 legs. We then added a heatsink and a resister plate on top of that. We stacked four resister plates on the 15″ tower and then made a second.
Friday was my last day at LASP. For most of the day I talked to some of the engineers about what they did I talked to one of my mentors, Briana, about everything the flat-sat is going to do for the final space mission next summer. At lunch, we had a barbeque to celebrate our co-worker’s birthday and Loudon and I’s last day. after the barbeque Loudon, Dmetry, Will, and I froze chips and banas with liquid nitrogen to see what would happen. At the end of the day Jack, one of the electrical engineers gave me a part of a book from 1943 on circuit theory.
On our last night in Boulder, Loudon and I went to see our roommates play in a band. They were playing at this place called Chicken on the Hill. The house was packed as they played covers of grateful dead songs and so much more. The band played for 4 hours and I had a blast every second of it. After the show, I got a privet drum lesson from the drummer and said goodbye to all the friends I made while I was there.
Everyone at LASP has been extremely kind and open to showing me what they do. I am extremely grateful for this internship and could not have asked for anything better. These past 6 weeks I have learned so much and has made me very excited to start applying to colleges in the fall.
Baen, I am so glad to hear that your pinternship went so well and that you had an overall positive experience! Super excited about your presentation this fall!