Sheila Baber, Physics & EAPS '21

Sheila Baber, a recent Physics and EAPS graduate spent her last summer interning at Satrec Initiative (SI) based in Daejoen, South Korea. Fun fact: Sheila has gone to South Korea three times--twice for Global Teaching Labs and once for an internship--through MISTI!

"As an intern in the microsatellite (satellites that weigh less than ~500 kg) team, my role was to design a hypothetical application case for the recently developed satellite bus ("bus" refers to the physical body of the satellite). During my two and a half weeks at SI, I developed a hypothetical mission, one where the microsatellite bus would be equipped with a hyperspectral camera (To explain, the human eye is multispectral: it responds to red, green and blue wavelengths of light. A hyperspectral camera receives information in hundreds of colors)," Sheila explained.

Why intern in South Korea?

Wanting to spend her last summer discovering New Space—a recent commercialization of space exploration—in a global context she shared that "so often, the narrative of space is focused on the United States (and Russia and Europe), while there is an established global space sector elsewhere. Through working at SI, I got to learn how countries like Korea, which previously relied on countries like the UK to develop satellites, is now engaging in technology transfer with other countries. In my office I could hear conversations in Korean, English, and Arabic simultaneously. When it comes to launching these satellites, SI worked with launch providers in India and Kazakhstan—which goes to show that there is a larger picture to New Space than the United States," she clarified. 

Read More: 4 Students Sharing Their Day in the Life in South Korea for MISTI Global Teaching Labs 2020 

Experiencing Korean culture

At the work place, Sheila was surprised at the working culture at SI with a rather egalitarian setting—in her own words—where everyone spoke with honorifics. Sheila mentioned that she was the youngest person in the team but her co-workers took her technical and personal contributions seriously. She also shared that "some older colleagues took her under their wing" to observe what goes on "behind the scenes". "These included a field trip to Jinju for a propulsion system shock test, and a nighttime star tracker test on the company rooftop," she described. 

"I got to learn about more than just how to build a satellite—but also got to learn from the experiences of the people who have seen more of life than me." - Sheila Baber.

One out of the many highlights 

Fresh out of her quarantine, Sheila decided to hike 계족산 (the Gyejoksan Mountain Red Clay Trail) as it would have taken her the same time to get to her destination via the bus and by foot. The journey might not have been the smoothest but Sheila had little epiphanies along the way like a sight of rice paddies and pepper fields but how it might be easily replaced by high rises. "Korea constantly surprises with its rapid pace of change—and every time I come back, I find myself reorienting myself in a shifting landscape. I am grateful to have these memories of a different pace of life, away from what to me seems an almost mindless expansion and construction."

Read More: Student Experience in South Korea for GTL 2019

Advice to future MISTI Interns

Here are some advice from Sheila's experience during her internship in Daejeon, South Korea!

"A piece of advice I would offer to students who live in apartment settings would be to be acquainted with the municipal waste collection system. In addition to the usual recycling, Korea separately collects food waste. Different cities may have different regulations on how these items are collected, and there is a fine associated with not following these regulations. Knowing how to get rid of waste in advance would have helped reduce my worries, especially given how I was accumulating waste during quarantine.

Summer MISTI students based in Daejeon should expect hot, humid, and oft-rainy weather and dress accordingly. Try to bring water-proof shoes with good soles, an umbrella, and a rain jacket. Though this is perhaps common sense, close the windows in your apartment during the rainy season (my Macbook suffered water damage from an unexpected squall)."