SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), Australia’s leading space research centre, has announced a program to fund two PhD students to undertake an intensive ten-week internship at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, USA.
Aspiring space leaders Anne Bettens, from the University of Sydney, and Emily Ahern, from the University of Adelaide, have been paired with an expert mentor from JPL for the duration of their internship, providing them one-on-one access to an expert in their area of study. SmartSat CRC says this pilot program with NASA JPL aims to set a blueprint for future internship opportunities with global space organisations.
JPL is a research and development lab federally funded by NASA and managed by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The centre specialises in robotic space exploration and science, sending spacecraft all through the solar system, rovers such as Perseverance and Curiosity to Mars, a slew of Earth Science missions and providing cameras to the James Webb Space Telescope project.
"We had many exceptional PhD students apply for this NASA internship, which is a testament to the skills being developed through SmartSat’s research portfolio for Australia’s fast-growing aerospace industry," said SmartSat CRC Chief Research Officer Dr Carl Seubert, who previously worked at NASA JPL for nearly a decade. "Both Anne and Emily have shown great dedication to their research and the innovation of Australian space technology."
“I had an out-of-this-world experience at JPL working alongside experts on challenging technologies and the best missions, and I want to share that with other Australians. This program provides our students an invaluable opportunity to learn from some of the greatest aerospace engineers and scientists in the world and forge international collaborations that will last their careers.”
Anne Bettens is a PhD candidate in the University of Sydney’s School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering. Her work is focused on autonomous navigation of spacecraft.
Bettens started her internship in March 2023 at NASA JPL.
“My current area of research is autonomous navigation of robotic craft for space exploration," she said. "This is a great opportunity for exposure to robotic hardware at JPL, particularly on the research and development side. I’m becoming more familiar with the robotic technologies being developed by JPL for planetary and lunar exploration, which is a highly relevant area to my PhD research."
Emily Ahern is a Physics PhD student at the University of Adelaide, and will embark on her NASA JPL internship journey in June 2023. Her work focuses on developing a compact optical clock for small satellites.
"I am hopeful I will be able to contribute to the cutting-edge atomic clock research at JPL, where an in-orbit mercury ion atomic clock was recently demonstrated. The opportunity to learn from leaders in my area of research is invaluable, and I'm looking forward to the experience.”
SmartSat CRC has an industry-focused doctoral program which aims to actively build Australia’s high-tech space knowledge. Now in its third year, the program has offered over 60 PhD student scholarships and aims to deliver education grants to more than 70 PhD graduates.