While many college students spent their summer at home or in a classroom, Andrew Uryniak ’28 spent his summer helping engineer the next mission to Mars.
The aerospace engineering major in the completed a 10-week internship at NASA’s (JPL), managed by the California Institute of Technology, where he worked in the System Safety Office supporting NASA’s contribution to the European Space Agency’s (ESA) ExoMars Rosalind Franklin mission. NASA is providing the ESA with Mars lander engines, a mass spectrometer for the mission’s MOMA instrument and a launch vehicle, along with potential use of lightweight heater units, for the joint mission to search for signs of past life on Mars.
Uryniak’s project focused on assessing the risk of inadvertent mechanism deployment, a scenario NASA evaluates for its launches. To do that work, he used Siemens NX, a CAD and finite element analysis program widely used in the aerospace industry, to build 3D models of spacecraft components and run structural simulations.
“The work I did during my internship gave me a great look into one of the most widely-used CAD and FEA software programs in the industry, and it really elevated my appreciation for the structural work that aerospace engineers do,” says Uryniak.
At JPL, Uryniak also had an orange connection. Aerospace engineering alumnus Shaun Ryan ’16 served as his mentor and provided guidance as he learned his way around the legendary NASA facility.
“I’m extremely grateful for Shaun and his support as a mentor during my time as a JPL intern. He was there to help me when challenges arose, but he also gave me opportunities to learn and make progress independently, and I’m very thankful for that,” says Uryniak. “My success as an intern would not have been possible without his guidance and feedback. I also really appreciate each chance I was given to explore the laboratory with him and learn about his role at JPL. Because of Shaun, I was able to develop skills and an engineering mindset that I know will take me far in life.”
Uryniak’s work at JPL included learning to mesh components for analysis; running hand calculations rooted in dynamics, kinematics and structural engineering principles; and conducting impact tests on composite material samples to study how they respond to varying levels of impact energy.
Beyond his primary project, Uryniak supported cleanroom operations and spacecraft hardware testing and watched a Mars rover test bed make the trip from a cleanroom to JPL’s Mars Yard, where engineers test vehicles built for the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers.
“Being able to support cleanroom operations was one of my favorite parts of the internship,” Uryniak says. “It was so surreal getting to stand near hardware that would eventually be leaving Earth. I hope to pursue work that gives me that kind of opportunity again in the future.”
The internship also gave Uryniak access to speakers and facilities not typically open to the public.
“JPL did an amazing job of ensuring interns made the most of their experience by arranging events with guest speakers like Reid Wiseman, the commander of the Artemis II mission,” Uryniak says. “I was also fortunate enough to hear the current NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, speak about the next few years of NASA during his visit to JPL.”
Uryniak also toured JPL’s Space Flight Operations Facility, the mission control center that has directed NASA’s interplanetary and deep space missions since 1964 and manages the Deep Space Network, along with several other facilities across the lab.
“Working for NASA has been a dream of mine for years, so being able to spend my summer in Southern California at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was an absolute dream come true,” Uryniak says. “I am so grateful for everything I was able to learn and do in just 10 weeks.”
