Exploring the Moon from Houston

The 2023 Exploration Science Summer Interns and some of the 2023 LPI Summer Interns at NASA JSC, standing in front of the NASA logo and OSIRIS-REx logo.

This summer I took part in the Lunar and Planetary Institute’s (LPI) Exploration Science Summer Intern Program, located in Houston, Texas. This is a 10-week program for graduate students to study relevant lunar science in preparation for NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions. 

The 2023 LPI Exploration Science Summer Interns next to a ‘reserved parking for suited subject astronaut’ sign at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. Image credit: LPI

Five of us, from Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, and the UK, worked together using remote sensing data and modelling of impact craters, in order to understand how impacts have distributed different rock types at the lunar south pole. We were looking to identify sample locations for high priority material, which may be the samples the Artemis 3 astronauts will bring back to Earth. Artemis 3 is the first mission in over 50 years (since the last Apollo mission) to bring humans back to the lunar surface, where they will be landing close to (within 6^oS) the lunar south pole, an area which currently remains unexplored. 

Me in the Apollo sample curation lab with some display Apollo Moon rocks, the central one is Apollo 17 mare basalt sample 70017,8, to the left is Apollo 16 impact melt breccia sample 61016,7 (also known as “Big Muley”). Image credit: LPI

During our time, we were given many opportunities to see and learn about different areas at NASA Johnson Space Centre (JSC), including the JSC Neutral Buoyancy lab (where astronauts train in a simulated 0g swimming pool), the JSC mission control (where they communicate with astronauts onboard the International Space Station) and the JSC extra-terrestrial curational facility (where they store and study samples including meteorites, Apollo moon rocks and the recently returned asteroid samples from OSIRIS-REx).

The 2023 LPI Exploration Science Summer Interns in front of the astronaut training pool at the JSC neutral buoyancy lab. Image credit: LPI

We also managed to get in some exploring, which included taking trips to Galveston (TX), Austin (TX) and New Orleans (LA). There were so many exciting activities in Houston as well, we saw the Houston Symphony at the Miller Outdoor Theatre on the 4th July (Independence day), watched the Houston Astros (reining champions) play baseball against the Washington Nationals at the Minute Maid Stadium and see alligators, baby turtles and spiders (lots) at the Armand Bayou Nature Centre.

A baseball game, the Houston Astros vs. the Washington Nationals (the Astros won!).
 

I’d like to thank everyone at the LPI and who I met through the internship that made the whole experience so enriching. It’s definitely a summer which I’ll never forget, where I learnt so much and had so much fun while doing so. I’m looking forward to reconnecting with everyone (hopefully) at LPSC next year.