you're looking at america's future
the space station freedom will give us a
permanent presence in space
this is also a view of our future hello
my name is joseph henderson this summer
i work for marshall space flight center
in the information and electronic
systems laboratory of the data
management branch
this summer joe helped test this
mechanism that could someday serve as
freedom's front door and parking space
rolled into one
it's called the docking and birthing
mechanism
joe's knowledge of computers played a
major role in completing his evaluation
joe is not a nasa engineer
not yet anyway joe is still in high
school
but through the nasa summer high school
apprenticeship research program or sharp
budding scientists and engineers are
getting a unique hands-on opportunity in
their chosen field sharp began with its
first students in 1980 and since more
than 140 high school students have
seized the sharp opportunity
the primary goal is to offer
underrepresented minority students the
chance to participate in an intensive
science and engineering apprenticeship
program
eighteen-year-old christine penny worked
in the atomic physics lab
during her study she designed and
developed hardware which automated this
vacuum ultraviolet calibration facility
on the side of this the monochromator
which disperses the light will be
attached a metal motor bracket
which will have a motor that will turn
the gears and change the wavelength of
light using this knob automatically
seventeen-year-old lemoine humphrey here
with nasa's jerry hudgins designed
hardware which will permit precise
movements of materials in a vacuum i was
assigned to do a package on the igds
which is behind me it stands for the
interactive graphics design system
these
three screw holes contain the counter
bore the counterboy is a half drilled
hole that enables the screw not to be on
the surface of the bracket which i was
designing
this is my mentor james blanche and we
are next to the gerber pc 800 computer
which our branch makes printed circuit
boards
i'm jim blanche i've been involved with
the sharp program for
five or six years
i think it's an excellent program
i have had some excellent students
with us during that period we have
gotten a lot of help from them and i
think they've gotten a great deal out of
the program
each student works with a mentor a nasa
scientist or engineer
brian chang wants to be a scientist and
during his study he worked closely with
nasa's dr donald frazier
his summer job gave him hands-on
experience using holography and lasers
for the purpose of testing a theory
involving separation processes
here sixteen-year-old julie mai and her
mentor dr steven seuss
examined solar data
julie worked with computers to create
these digitized pictures of the sun
these students worked an eight-week
schedule at the marshall space flight
center in huntsville alabama
here are the requirements to qualify for
sharp
you must be a citizen of the united
states
parents cannot be employed by nasa
and the minimum age is 16.
each student will be required to write
an abstract of his or her assigned
project and a research paper upon
completion of study
a newsletter is published with articles
written by the students
this lets sharp students nasa wide share
program experiences and project success
stories
students participate in other enrichment
activities lecture series field trips
computer labs and demonstrations
with your participation in sharp you
enter a program that could lead to
future nasa employment opportunities
now let's hear from former sharp
students
dwindling artists trains astronauts at
the payload crew training complex when i
participated in sharp it was during the
summer of 1980 i had just completed my
junior year of high school i was one of
the first participants in the program
offered here at marshall space flight
center
now i'm a permanent employee of nasa i'm
working in the payload crew training
complex at marshall we're responsible
for training crew members on payloads
aboard space lab our responsibility is
the development of software models and
hardware mockups of the experiments to
fly aboard the space lab i'm also
participating in the payload operations
control center pod cadre where we
monitor pre-launch launch and
post-launch activities
ricky howard has always wanted to be an
electrical engineer
sharp prepared him for his career when i
came here in 1981 i was a sharp student
and i really enjoyed the program i
thought it was a
very interesting useful and
stimulating program something that was
very good to do as a high school student
and
i learned a lot from the experience
when i was a sharp student one of the
projects i worked on
led me into the field i'm working now
which is the field of computers
controlling
real world objects right now i'm working
for nasa in the control electronics
branch
working on a
autonomous or automated rendezvous and
docking system basically this system is
going to be put on the orbital
maneuvering vehicle
and will
then be used to go up and capture
satellites to bring them either to the
space station or back to the shuttle
in the future
to find out more about this exciting
summer program please write cm 22
george newby
employee development specialist
personnel office
marshall space flight center alabama
35812
sharp allowed me hands-on experience
with high-tech equipment exposure to the
scientific and engineering world and a
head start for employment with nasa this
gave me a chance to
see different areas of nasa
and a lot of what goes on in a
professional environment something you
don't normally get to see as a high
school student you usually have to wait
until college or beyond
i encourage any student who is given the
opportunity to participate in the
program to take advantage it worked for
me
being involved in the national space
program is an idea that many students
just dream about
for you it can become a reality
easy