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!

Krystal Mike

School: Arizona State University

Major(s): Mechanical Engineering

About me: I am currently a junior at Arizona State University studying to be a Mechanical Engineer. This is my second year back at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and it is good to be back. I am working with three other team members to design, build and test a robot that functions in microgravity. It is definitely something new and challenging but I am excited to be apart of the team. We are working at the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and doing our best to finish the project in time.

As for me, I am originally from Window Rock, Arizona it is located the Navajo Indian Reservation. I am full Navajo and proud of it. I like to play any type of sport; especially volleyball. I enjoy spending time with family, traveling, reading, listening to music, meeting new people, and I love to learn something new everyday. As a Navajo Women Engineer the obstacles have been challenging, but the rewards have been and will continue to be great.

Lisha Roubert

School: University of Puerto Rico, Cayey Campus

Major(s): Mathematics

About me: I like to consider myself a multidisciplinary person. I enjoy having the opportunity to learn new things, which has brought me to work at NASA for the third consecutive summer. I have just finished my Bachelor’s in Mathematics at the University of Puerto Rico, Cayey Campus, and will now pursue a Ph.D. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at University of Wisconsin-Madison. I am interested in studying atmospheric sciences in order to apply it to study earth as well as the atmosphere and conditions on other planets. It was my interest in remote sensing and planetary atmospheres that led me to apply for the GSFC Lunar and Planetary Sciences Academy.

This summer I am working with three other teammates on the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) and Laser Ranging (LR) Experiment of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission. We will be using the new data that comes from the LOLA instrument to generate high resolution maps of the moon, which will assist in the determination of future landing sites on the moon. The LRO mission just got launched today, June 18^th 2009!!! Even though I did not get to go to KSC to watch the launch, it was still a heart pounding experience. Never did I think that it would be possible to be so terrified and excited at the same time. Now I know how all the science and engineering teams must feel as they see the missions that they have worked so hard on go into space. However, it is the most rewarding feeling ever to see that the launch was successful! I am very excited to be working on the LRO mission and look forward to the contributions that my research will make to the future of space exploration.

Aaron Silver

School: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Major(s): Electrical Engineering

About me: I originally come from Holland, Michigan. I received my B.S. in Engineering from Hope College in 2008, and currently attend Illinois for graduate school. My interests include robotics, control, and artificial intelligence, and I am involved in active research in the Language Acquisition and Robotics research group at Illinois. Some of my other interests include traveling and camping, as I have done a ton of camping in 40-some states and most of the provinces in Canada. I’m also pretty big into sports, I’m a fan of all the Detroit teams (Pistons, Tigers, Lions, Red Wings), and above all else, a huge New York Yankees fan. Lastly, music is a passion of mine. I have played in orchestras, wind symphonies, jazz ensembles, brass quintets, you name it I’ve done it. I have been playing piano since I was about 4 years old, and have never stopped. For this summer, as part of the Lunar Planetary Science Academy, I get to work with a great group on the development of a free space laser ranging and communication system. By the end of the summer, it is our hope to be able to send out data on a laser to a nearby cell tower, and receive data as well as distance information.