My coworkers and I at a Gaelic football game (Robert, Jeremy, Carlos, and I L-R).
Author: Kacey Haws | Major: Computer Science | Semester: Summer 2024
Kacey Haws is an honors student from Springdale, AR, studying for a bachelor’s in computer science with minors in mathematics and physics. After graduation, Haws plans to attend graduate school in aerospace engineering or related fields within computer science/engineering and aerospace.
This summer, I had the opportunity to intern with Realtra Space Systems Engineering in Dublin, Ireland, through API and the Honors College Internship in Dublin program for eight weeks. I got to work on projects that will be launched on Ariane 6 iterations (with one project launching in 2026) and got to experience the first launch of that rocket type on July 9 alongside the French ambassador to Ireland and all my coworkers. Every time someone asked me my favorite part of my summer, I always answered working. While living and traveling in Dublin was amazing, the work I completed with my company was one of the most fulfilling experiences I have ever had.
My first major responsibility was working on the experimental GEKI system for later Ariane 6 payloads. GEKI is a GNSS module, or global navigation satellite system, where the rocket launched uses the satellites orbiting Earth to navigate to its destination. I got to work in the programming language C, utilizing a framework called CMocka to simulate testing for the embedded software systems. While my boss had started this work, we were unsure on how to connect everything properly. Thankfully, I was able to rewrite it to work on Windows, and set out to make up to date documentation so my coworkers would be able to run it after I left. I ended up making such a detailed installation guide that I uploaded it to my personal GitHub to help other Windows users running CMocka understand the framework and run some simple tests. I was able to fully create the GEKI testing code in the third week of my internship – when this was what I was meant to work on all summer! However, there were still lots of interesting projects to work on around Realtra to fill the rest of my time…
My task for the rest of my internship was embedded software testing for the European Space Agency’s PLATO project. This mission aims to find and study planets like our Earth in the habitable zone around Sun-like stars. I was tasked with creating tests to simulate a working communication between a user and the payload interface unit (PLIU). This required using a MIL-STD-1553 bus, which simulates how the payload will transmit its data without having the actual hardware from ESA. This required understanding the code’s many command words, mostly in hexadecimal or binary, to get an idea of what kind of data it was transmitting through the bus controller. I then adapted it to send one of each type of message relayed: configuration, calibration, and housekeeping. I was able to simulate real data by using code generators and shifting the bits of those numbers so they would align with the base necessary for transmission. There were seven datawords in total, ranging from sending data like temperatures or addresses of important memory registers. This made it so my supervisor can test the real code for the payload without the hardware, as it is able to take in datawords and spit out the corresponding translated information.
While working with the software and fiddling with the testing was difficult at times, I had a lot of support from the company and my supervisor, Carlos. They were always able to help if I was struggling – my coworker Peter provided some code he used to create the command words for PLATO, which I adapted to the rest of the six datawords needed for testing. They were also really easy to get along with – talking in English wasn’t an issue, but their accents were sometimes a little heavy – I even went to a Gaelic football game with my coworkers. Working with them and getting the support I did, both inside and outside of work, was a great experience. I was even able to meet and work alongside the first ever Irish astronaut, Norah Patten! She was announced to be taking her first flight while I was in Dublin, which made the whole company proud.
I was able to learn a lot about the aerospace industry, especially about the ups and downs dealing with contract work. The company was working on many different projects at a time, ranging from the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) to AI-driven flight modules. This offered a range of interesting activities my coworkers were doing at once. I asked specifically to work on PLATO since I found the mission incredibly interesting, but I could have worked on proposals for future projects like my coworker Fatima, organizing and creating databases for lab organization like the other interns Robert and Jeremy, or working directly on critical electronics like Jake and Daniel. I could go up to anyone and they would be excited to talk about the important tasks they were working on.
This experience solidified my desire to work in the aerospace industry. Since my sophomore year, I have been thinking about diving into the industry, but was unsure on how to get started. Being able to work on such interesting projects around an amazing group of people in the field bolstered my interest and gave me pride in my ability to create software for critical components in spaceflight. I plan on attending graduate school in either aerospace or computer engineering, which I hope will give me more experience in embedded flight software for application in later employment.