6 May 2021

Internships are a pivotal part of any young professional’s journey in her or his career and many aspiring aerospace engineers look to NASA for those opportunities.

The National Space Grant College and Fellowship Project (Space Grant) makes some of those internships possible. Three of the twelve Space Grant 2020 recipients from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center and NASA’s Ames Research Center, both located in California, are benefiting from the program that has allowed them to learn more about their passion for engineering.

The Space Grant internship is a competitive process with about 26,000 unique applicants every year. Selections are made in partnership with the mentors for the program and student coordinators. Student coordinators review the applications and make suggestions for mentors to review and finalize a match with a project.

Aneliese Hebenstreit, a senior at Missouri University of Science and Technology, didn’t even know about NASA internships until her advisor mentioned the opportunity. She said she was grateful to get the internship at NASA.

“Working at NASA was a dream come true,” shared Hebenstreit. “It was such a farfetched dream, that I didn’t let myself think about it often. It was a huge shock to get an interview request and later an offer.”

Hebenstreit worked on the Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars (Prandtl-M) team at NASA’s Armstrong Flight and Research Center. She was responsible for the design of future gliders and created a systematic way to test individual characteristics of the gliders.

Hebenstreit’s internship led to another opportunity. She will participate in the NASA Pathways Program that provides current students with paid work experience and recent graduates with a dynamic career development program at the beginning of their careers.

“My career goal is to focus on sustainability,” said Hebenstreit. “I’d like to research and develop a more sustainable solution to air travel. I’d love to continue working for NASA and help develop sustainable technologies.”

Mostafa Youssef, a graduate student at Iowa State University, thought he would have a career as an astronaut. He then realized that working at NASA means discovering remarkable findings for different missions and projects through space and aeronautics developments. That’s exactly what happened during his internship with the Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology (RVLT) project, which is researching and developing tools to better understand the behavior of vertical takeoff and landing in different configurations to support the future of advanced air mobility.

“I was able to research and introduce a newly developed tool to the RVLT team to better support design and propulsion analysis of rotorcraft,” said Youssef.

Youseef’s internship will end in May of 2021 and he is currently running multiple test procedures and helping the team learn the new tool.

Haley Guastaferro, who will graduate from the University of San Diego in December with an electrical engineering degree, found that the internship funded by the Space Grant, “allowed me to propel my education in electrical engineering.”

Gustaferro’s internship took place at NASA’s Ames Research Center and focused on updating the Main Drive Speed Control system of the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel (UPWT). That’s where generations of commercial and military aircraft and NASA space vehicles, including the space shuttle, have been designed and tested.

“I am particularly proud of working closely with the team to evaluate the proposed designs,” said Gustaferro. “This was my favorite part [of my internship] because I got to put my thoughts forward on what design I thought was best and be a part of the team that made a very crucial decision that will not only benefit the UPWT, but also all aircraft designs.”

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(A) Mostafa Youssef, a graduate student at Iowa State University and a 2020 Space Grant recipient, developed tools to better understand the behavior of vertical takeoff and landing in different configurations. The tools he developed during his internship at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California will support the future of advanced air mobility.

(B) Aneliese Hebenstreit, a senior at Missouri University of Science and Technology and 2020 Space Grant recipient, worked on the Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars (Prandtl-M) team at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.

(C) Haley Guastaferro, who will graduate from the University of San Diego in December with an electrical engineering degree and a 2020 Space Grant recipient, worked on the Main Drive Speed Control system of the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel (UPWT) at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California