Student's internships out of this world: Meral Sarper spent two summers working for NASA.

(Pueblo Chieftain, The (CO) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Aug. 26--Just earning the chance to spend a second summer working for NASA is a substantial honor for any high school student but Meral Sarper is aiming higher than any Earth-based laboratory.

Over her most recent stint at NASA's Langley Research Center, Space Shuttle astronaut Eileen Collins told her that in addition to majoring in engineering, a minor in geology might be a good idea. Asked if that meant she wanted to go into space, Meral answered, "Oh, oh yes. My ultimate goal is to go to Mars."

Last year, she applied for a NASA internship and spent part of the summer at the Langley lab, in Hampton, Va., the same place her father worked when he was a NASA engineer. Huseyin Sarper is an engineering professor at Colorado State University-Pueblo now.

Her mother, Nanette, who had been a dietitian at St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center, had to go to Virginia last year to help with a family emergency and Meral was able to stay with her while working at Langley. Mrs. Sarper will be returning to Pueblo in a few days, her daughter said.

The 17-year-old Centennial High School senior said she hopes to go to the University of Colorado at Boulder next year. With many of her high school credits out of the way, she's taking engineering and French classes at CSU-Pueblo this semester and geology at Centennial. She'll also be taking calculus and physics this year and probably will hit the ground running because of the hands-on experience she had over the summer.

Meral was part of a team working on the new Orion spacecraft. The Orion will replace the shuttle when it is retired, doing double duty by transporting material and crew members to the international space station and taking humans again to the moon and probably beyond.

Her team worked on the computer programs that will be used to launch the new vehicles, figuring the thrust needed to lift the mass, adjust the angles of ascent and other factors.

Even though she's only taking three classes this fall, Meral also will be doing some independent study work at the university, taking part in a local biofuel project and working with her dad and another team on a rover project for planetary exploration.

To see more of The Pueblo Chieftain, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.chieftain.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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