PISCES Serves Up Stellar Internships
Written by Joie Colobong
Remote-controlled planetary rovers, laser communication ground stations, and 3D-printed rocket parts - no, we’re not talking science fiction here. Science, yes, but definitely not fiction.
The PISCES planetary rover, Alpha Argo, during a test run.
This summer, under the watchful eye of the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES), fifteen interns and volunteers, including 3 students from UH Hilo, assisted in the development of these and other projects, helping the Big Island of Hawaii move closer to becoming a pioneer in space exploration.
Founded in 2007 and helmed by former NASA Space Shuttle Flight Director Rob Kelso, PISCES is a Hilo-based government aerospace agency dedicated to using the Big Island’s volcanic terrain to test advanced space technologies. The organization was affiliated with UH Hilo until June 2012, when it was transferred to the State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. PISCES offers paid internships every summer and is currently exploring the possibility of establishing a co-op program with UH Hilo.
“The idea is for a student to gain some work-related experience while in college to give him or her a better chance at succeeding once they graduate from school,” said Rodrigo Romo, Project Manager for PISCES.
Romo concedes that internships with PISCES may not be for everyone. “For somebody who’s going into a nursing program, we wouldn’t have anything to offer them that would help them in their nursing career,” Romo said. “But if you have somebody in geology, astronomy, computer science, physics, or engineering… We have to have [people seeking] degrees that have something to do with what we do here, so that everybody benefits.”
One project that this summer’s PISCES interns and volunteers took on was the building of a planetary rover on loan from Canada-based firm Ontario Drive and Gear. “We’re adding all the command and control systems, all the navigation, cameras, sensors and telemetry, so that we’ll have a mobile platform that will allow other space agencies to send us their payloads or their test equipment and test it on our rover. Rather than having to send a complete rover, they would us send us just the equipment, and then we could hand them control of the rover through a secure network from anywhere in the world.”
Two teams of interns and volunteers – one based in Hilo, the other on Maui – worked alongside NASA engineers and were tasked with, among other things, determining what hardware to purchase, setting up wireless communication links and developing the graphical user interface for the rover’s control system.
Romo spoke highly of this summer’s interns and volunteers, appreciative of their commitment to their work. “We wouldn’t have been able to get as much done as we did this summer without them,” Romo said. “Not only the quality, but the amount of work they produced. They were eleven very productive, very capable, and very smart, young individuals. They saved us at least six months’ worth of work.”
For more information on PISCES’ objectives, internships and projects, visit pacificspacecenter.com. Also look for PISCES at the upcoming ALEX Fall Internship Fair, being held on Thursday, October 30.
