The Tribune

TWO Bahamian students who interned at NASA/Kennedy Space Centre in the summer are now back in Nassau.

While in Florida, Justin Lockhart and Oliver Lundy worked with academic, NASA and corporate research scientists and engineers in the fields of aeronautical studies, biological sciences and space related technology.

Soon after returning, Oliver gave the inaugural presentation at COB’s “Professional Seminar Series”, organised by Dr Raveenia Roberts-Hanna, of the School of Chemistry, Environmental and Life Sciences.

In a report following his return, Oliver said: “Over the course of this summer, I was exposed to many wonderful and fascinating individuals and experiences.

“My eight weeks at NASA were divvied up into one week at the Kennedy Space Centre’s visitor complex attempting to acclimate myself to the new world around me, followed by seven weeks in the deep waters of the Space Life Sciences Lab, or the SLSL, as it is known to the residents of the building.”

Towards the end of the summer, Oliver said, he assisted University of Florida researchers with “an experiment studying the effects of microgravity on the mutualistic interactions between the luminescent bacteria vibrio fischeri and the bobtailed squid euprymna scolopes”.

Oliver also learned how to extract DNA from several types of organism and perform various tests on it.

“Overall, this internship was a wonderful experience that undoubtedly changed my life for the better,” he said.

Justin said that over the eight-week course, he “learned a plethora of invaluable skills in lab research and real world independence”.

He said being chosen for the course was an honour for himself and his country.

Among his experiences, Justin assisted with a research project utilising a VEGGIE unit – a deployable, low-resource plant growth system that can provide a source of fresh food and crew recreation for long duration space missions. He said: “What astronauts miss most about Earth when they’re engaged in a mission is the plant life because it’s the most ubiquitous visible thing on land. Hence the gardening and general hands-on interaction with the hardware are the topped ranked user requirements of the VEGGIE unit.”

Justin described the internship was “a spectacular experience”.