MONTEREY, Calif. —
A Naval Postgraduate School student has boldly gone where no NPS physics student has gone before.
Navy Lt. Todd Coursey embarked recently on a quarter-long summer internship with NASA at its Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, to supplement his applied physics curriculum. He is the first such student to do so, and his internship has the potential to significantly expand NPS' research horizons.
“Todd took a quantum leap in going to NASA,” said NPS physics professor Ray Gamache. “I don't think anyone has ever done this before. It's a great idea: go to another place that's completely unknown and work there, assess, understand how things work; this is just priceless.”
Over his three-month internship, Coursey and his NASA team are experimenting with various materials for a new generation of fiber optic cables which optimize performance at cryogenic temperatures.
In providing real-time monitoring of a range of key engineering data, the fiber optic sensing systems which will employ these can revolutionize not only future rocket bodies, but aircraft, energy and transportation infrastructure, and medical surgeries, according to NASA.
“We're basically dropping different kinds of coated fiber optic sensing cables into a small cryochamber — about the size of a fire extinguisher — and then reading the raw…
