The NASA 3D modelling internship was introduced to me at the career fair online in the
spring. I was not able to sign up for an interview, but was able to go to the open session. Two supervisors were kind enough to stay after to allow me to talk to them, and I secured the internship through this interview. NASA is well known for space exploration and study, but I worked with my supervisors, a senior multimedia specialist, and a NASA engineer and archivist to model a previously undocumented soviet space craft NASA history archives.
I was in charge of researching and recreating the Mars-1 Orbiter or 2MV-4 craft that was launched in 1962. It was intended to flyby Mars and send data back as well as surface images, but it’s course correction system was damaged 5 days into its mission. The model had to be created using reference images found from various sources, and the rest had to be recreated from descriptions and schematics.
I was incredibly proud of my result, as I had never used Blender before. It was a challenge to completely learn a software program as I went, but I am proud and confident that I could continue working with blender in the future. I have learned the requirements someone might need to be hired at an organization like NASA, and I know the path I should take and places I should apply to to continue my work with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
