Stephen Indyk

Major(s): Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Concentration
Institution: Rutgers University

About Me:Hello, I am a Mechanical Engineering senior at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Some activities I am and have been involved with include fencing, remote control airplane building/flying, bicycling, hiking and photography. My interest in space and space exploration stems mainly from the vehicles. It fascinates me that we can design and build complex machines that are capable of such adverse environments and conditions.

I feel fortunate that my project lies directly in my interests of space exploration. My group is designing a robotic system to operate in microgravity. The purpose of this robotic system would be to collect samples from an asteroid or to repair a satellite. The difficult aspect of the project is that the robotic system need to counter act any forces applied to the surface it is working on. This is to say, if the robot is not fastened to the surface, and wants to drill a hole, it will just spin off the surface. Like many engineering challenges, it is a hard problem that will take much time and energy to solve, but will provide a great sense of accomplishment when completed. I hope to gain a better understanding of a space environment from the Sudbury trip. This education will enhance my capabilities to design better space systems.

Hamilton Moore

School: Auburn University

Major(s): Electrical Engineering
Bachelors of Science, 2011
Wireless Engineering
Bachelors of Science, 2011
Business and Engineering Technology Minor, 2011

About me: To tell you a little bit about me I am originally from Decatur, Alabama and am currently attending Auburn University pursuing a degree in Electrical Engineering. In my spare time I enjoy spending time outdoors including hiking, mountain biking, camping, hunting, and fishing. At Auburn I am also involved in a team that is designing and building a small cube satellite to be sent into low earth orbit. The team is called Aubie-SAT and when completed will be the first student built satellite to be sent into orbit by a university in Alabama.

Over two years of working on Aubie-SAT, a student built satellite, I have become increasingly interested in a NASA internship. NASA is on the forefront of technology, explores the depth of the unknown, reveals the secrets of the cosmos, and is benefiting mankind through its discoveries. Space is fascinating, there is truly so much that can be learned from the universe. Discoveries that can change the world and benefit all of mankind are found in space. It is for these reasons that I am interested in space and believe that it is worth understanding. In the future I hope to be able to work alongside a team doing worthwhile research while advancing the project with my research, skills, and abilities. I also would like to help lead a team while staying actively involved in R and D.

This summer I am interning with NASA at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Maryland. I am working on a four man team that is working to develop a laser communication system with ranging. This system when completed will be able to send data through space via laser as well as measure the distance of various objects. This is truly and exciting project; one in which carries major implications in the space technology sector.

CJ Nicklow

School: West Virginia University

Major(s): Electrical and Computer Engineering

About me: I’ve grown up in Morgantown, WV my whole life. I am interested in mathematics, physics, and most of all engineering. I originally came into college looking forward to pursuing a degree in Computer Engineering with a secondary degree in Electrical Engineering because of how interested I have always been in computers and electronic devices since I was little. I was always an avid video game player and played with all kinds of little electronic toys until I got bored with them and tore them apart. During the beginning of my Junior year at WVU though I gained an interest in pursuing Electrical Engineering more than Computer Engineering and my emphasis has really changed on which one I want to go to grad school for. What caught me was electro-magnetics and the math, science, and theory behind it. Also, every job I have looked into with computer engineering is looking for a programmer and nothing else. I like to program but I am looking forward to the hardware more than the programming in the long run. I’m planning on going to grad school for a masters in electrical engineering and also attempt for a Ph.D in the same field, and I will also hopefully finish my minor in mathematics if I don’t get a chance to take the class in the next 2 semesters. I became interested in space at a very young age and I have been since. I started working with NASA last summer at the IV&V center in Fairmont, WV. This is my first year with Goddard, and I have to say, I love it. I am working with an awesome group on a very challenging project. We are working on free space laser communications and range finding. We hope by the end of the summer to be able to send a signal to a satellite and receive it back, be able to read the message, and calculate how far away the satellite is.
Some of my other interests consist of football(which I played all the way through middle and high school), sports in general, lifting, video games, traveling, music, and weirdly enough, Mathematics. Throughout my life I have loved to play football, I was an offensive and defensive lineman on good teams. I have played countless games, ranging from Atari, to the Wii, to the XBOX 360, and computer games. I have had no time as of these past few years to play though, engineering is a great major, but it is very, very time consuming.

Lai Nguyen

School: North Carolina State University

Major(s): Computer & Electrical Engineering

About me: Hey yall! I am from Fayetteville, North Carolina and am currently a rising junior at North Carolina State University. I am pursuing a double major in computer and electrical engineering. When I'm not cheering on for NCSU's Wolfpack, I enjoy volunteering, listening to music, soccer, badminton, and photography. I also love traveling and learning new things, which is why I am stoked about our expedition to Sudbury, Canada!

During my time here, I will also be working with three other talented individuals on the ILIADS software project. I guess you could imagine ILIADS to be like Google Earth (except for the moon), with much more features for analyzing geographic and environmental data. We have four phases to complete in our project in which the focus is establishing a relationship between ILIADS and a robot for receiving data and sending control commands. This project is really interesting because it allows me to incorporate two things I truly enjoy, my area of study (computer engineering) and my enthusiasm for space exploration. Working with NASA has been amazing so far, and I look forward to the weeks ahead!

Mikhail O. Nikiforov

School: University of Maryland College Park

Major(s): Mechanical Engineering

About me:

At the moment my long term professional goals vary. I feel that I am very flexible and can accept almost any specialization. Staying with the Lunar and Planetary Science Academy will guide me toward one or another sub discipline. I know that I want to do math, physics, and engineering design. Studying different subjects will uncover my true interest and lead me toward a particular discipline, which I will specialize in. Exploring a variety of subjects as an undergraduate will develop my overall competence in engineering, familiarize me with different areas of studies and determine my own niche.

During my college career as well as my graduate work I would like to engage in propulsion, dynamics and control research. Vehicle stability, vehicle design and propulsion engine testing interest me very much. I would like to participate and learn more about those areas as they attract me the most. I find these areas fascinating and challenging; I wish to gain experience and knowledge out of all professional research, development and explorations that I engage in. Spending time with professional NASA team and top scientists in the country is an honor and a privilege for me. I consider myself extremely fortunate to work alongside with them. I try to learn as much as possible interacting with those people, because one day I want to push the science forward as well.

Ian Schoch

School: University of Maryland College Park

Major(s): Physics and Computer Science

About me:

During my four years of high school, I have developed a strong interest in math and science. I took on AP Physics, BC Calculus, and 3 years of Programming and learned problem solving skills through the Maryland and American Mathematics Competitions. In my free time I love to work on tricky math problems, and over the summer I tutored math to high school students. Today, I am the leader of the chess club and the very successful chess team at my school. I am also a member of a strong all high school student chess team which has won the DC chess league for the past 3 seasons in a row. Regarding physics, I was a member of the Junior Engineering Technical Society team which won first place in the Junior Varsity division. I believe NASA can benefit from having me as a participant because I can bring my curiosity and past knowledge to the NASA team. I aim to work hard and do my best in all that I do and this summer experience is no exception.

Andrea Balbas

School: Queens College

Major(s): BS Geology

About me:

I attend Queens College in busy New York City. I am a senior studying geology and I love rocks. I love rocks because they tell us about earth development through billions of years. They can tell us about past climate, volcanic activity, asteroid impacts, the evolution of life and much more. I hope to attend graduate school and study heliosphere lithosphere interactions and planetary geology. Here at Goddard Space Flight Center, I lead the Lunar Water and Helium Detection team. We are designing a device for the remote detection of water and helium at the lunar South Pole. It is an exciting and pertinent project. My team is more than up for the challenge.


This is my second summer at Goddard and I always love being here surrounded by so many great scientists. This summer I am particularly excited to go on our geologic expedition to the Sudbury Basin. I am the only geologist in LPSA this year and we will be collecting geologic data during our expedition. Our goal is to simulate a planetary landing and collect as much data as possible in order to complete field truth comparisons. I have my rock hammer ready!