We have landed at NASA JPL

One of those pinch me moments in life.

For the past few months people have been asking how excited I am to become an Autumn (Fall in the USA) intern at NASA JPL.

I think it hit me for the first time on Monday morning sitting in the California reception and being handed my temporary badge. “Holy Dooley, I’m officially an intern at NASA JPL!”, I said to the eight interns, with tears in my eyes. We were all beaming from ear to ear with the same knowing look. Our life is about to change.

On day one we were joined by interns from Germany, Switzerland, Japan, South Africa, Spain and of course, the Aussie’s! From geology, maritime engineering, artificial intelligence, ecological applied mathematics and aerospace engineering. No rock, place or field of study is left unrepresented.

So what’s it like? I feel like I’m literally living in the Big Bang Theory show, with Sheldon and Leonard. 😂

I’ve seen the exact replica of the Mars Rover, walked down ‘Big Bang Theory Way’ in Pasadena, and am seated in the Robotics and Autonomous Systems Laboratory working on developing a platform to carry out a mission far far away from home.

It feels like I’m living in a Hollywood movie… but it’s real life. And the expectations are also real. A published paper in 10 weeks and designing a platform from scratch. Hah! No probs!

Wish me luck.

This is a dream come true to experience and see what really happens ‘behind the scenes’ and play a very small part in developing the next frontier of space missions.

I’m literally learning from and surrounded by the most ambitious and capable scientists and engineers in the world AND now I have the #NASA merch to match a real life job. 😱

Thank you #NISA, University of Sydney, Monash Information Technology, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory for making this possible. 🙏

#welcometoNASAJPL #AutumnIntern #NASAJPL #daremightythings