Over Summer 2025, MIT graduate students Yana Charoenboonvivat (Course 16 – AeroAstro) and Taylor Hampson (Course 22 – Nuclear Science and Engineering) were at NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), respectively. Yana was a graduate pathways intern with the Thermal Energy Conversion branch, working on the Fission Surface Power project. Taylor served as a Visiting Technologist in the Space Nuclear Propulsion branch, working on core design for a conceptual NASA research reactor for NTP fuel.
Fission Surface Power at NASA Glenn Research Center
During her time at NASA GRC, Yana engaged with Fission Surface Power (FSP) subject matter experts across all major subsystems, including the reactor core, power conversion, shielding, heat rejection, and power management and distribution. She gained valuable insights into the technical, historical, and policy aspects of FSP and contributed to the development of a preliminary framework to quantify system mass uncertainty, which resulted in a published NASA Technical Memorandum . In addition, she coordinated a site visit to the Centrus Enrichment facility in Piketon, OH, for the FSP team.
Space Nuclear Propulsion at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
At NASA MSFC, Taylor contributed to the design of a new NASA research reactor core using OpenMC. This reactor concept aims to address test facility needs that are not met by existing infrastructure. Current facilities for Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) fuel testing typically provide at most two of the three conditions: the appropriate temperatures, the correct neutron flux, or a hydrogen environment. In collaboration with his mentor, Taylor proposed and designed a reactor concept capable of delivering all three. In addition to his design work, Taylor toured MSFC’s hot cell and test facilities, where he saw an actual NTP test article for the DRACO program and visited the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant.
