NASA SEES Interns Tackle Real-World Lunar Exploration Challenges

High school students participating in the NASA STEM Enhancement in Earth Science (SEES) internship program worked on propellant measurement challenges for lunar missions. During the summer 2026 program, the SEES Mission Architecture Tool for Research, Integration, and eXploration (MATRIX) team focused on microgravity propellant mass gauging, which is relevant to NASA’s Artemis missions.

Mentored by Dr. Kevin Crosby, the team examined the Modal Propellant Gauging (MPG) approach, which uses acoustic responses in propellant tanks to estimate fuel mass. MPG was developed at Carthage College and is scheduled for demonstration on the Intuitive Machines IM-3 mission, which features the Trinity lander targeted for a 2027 touchdown in the Reiner Gamma region.

Reconstructing Missions From Public Data

Using publicly available sources, the intern team developed analytical methods:

• Trajectory Reconstruction: The team utilized NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility data from the IM-1 and IM-2 missions to identify engine burns and estimate velocity changes.
• Simulation Models: Because a complete IM-3 trajectory was not public, the students wrote a reconstruction algorithm and ran computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and Monte Carlo simulations to estimate fluid slosh and propellant states.
• Gauging Windows: The analysis indicated that MPG can take reliable readings during Lunar Orbit Insertion and Powered Descent burns.

Presentations and Community Engagement

The students shared their research with industry professionals and peers:

• Briefed the Intuitive Machines propulsion group on their methods and results.
• Presented their research at the SEES Annual Symposium and the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium Annual Conference.
• Scheduled a presentation at the American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting in San Francisco in December 2026.

Dr. Kevin Crosby noted that the high school team developed an advanced understanding of the subject matter in under a month. The SEES program continues to provide 11th and 12th-grade students with hands-on experience utilizing aerospace data and analytical tools.

How to Verify

Interested readers can review official project updates and learn more about the internship through the University of Texas Center for Space Research SEES program portal.