NASA thrill for Hammond Pearce
25 November 2019
One of the New Zealand recipients of a New Zealand Space Scholarship says his time at NASA was invaluable.
Auckland engineering PhD student Hammond Pearce says it’s always been his “ultimate dream” to work at NASA.
“They’re not just cutting edge because of the science, but also because of the cultural aspects.”
NASA, alongside the NZ Space Agency, has co-funded a New Zealand Space Scholarship for high-performing tertiary students to conduct research at NASA’s AMES Research Centre in Silicon Valley.
Hammond was one of the first New Zealand interns and lived on site for ten weeks in 2019. He worked alongside a mentor in the Intelligent Robotics Group and looked at different ways to control NASA’s SuperBall tensegrity robot, which could eventually be used to explore dangerous planetary environments.
He says the experience was invaluable and highlights included “doing cool maths” and star-gazing at night with fellow interns.
“It was a fantastic place to work. Any kind of experience you get working on robotics is very useful to apply to companies and organisations back in New Zealand.”