Aerospace Aspirations: York College Student Spends Summer at NASA
Mechanical Engineering major Josh Polanchek ‘27 traveled down south to Texas this past summer. There, he completed his first co-op requirement at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, where he was immersed in the world of space robotics.
For over 65 years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has worked tirelessly to expand the United States’ knowledge of outer space. With research centers and facilities across the country and a workforce of thousands of workers, NASA has continued to delve deeper into the future of aerospace technology and explore what lies beyond our stars.
This past summer, one York College of Pennsylvania student, Josh Polanchek ‘27, had the opportunity to spend his co-op internship at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. He had the chance to work with extended reality technology and played a role in designing and building tools that astronauts may use in future space training and explorations.
Connections and Extended Reality
Josh grew up fascinated with space and engineering, which quickly manifested into a desire to work at NASA someday. His interest in working with technology led him to pursue a Mechanical Engineering major at York College. When he learned of his co-op requirement for his degree, Josh decided to take a chance and apply for a NASA internship.
“From my experience, probably the biggest thing I learned from my co-op search was that it’s a hundred times more effective to just find a real person you can talk with and connect with instead of throwing an application into the void,” Josh said.
Though the positions were competitive, Josh found success in reaching out and connecting with a couple of coordinators and workers who worked at NASA.
With their support and funding from the state of Pennsylvania, he was accepted into an internship program at the Johnson Space Center from June 2nd to August 8th, 2025.
For his co-op, Josh worked with extended reality (XR), an umbrella term encompassing technologies that blend physical and virtual reality, such as VR and AR. With his own experience working with VR, coding, and 3D printing, Josh was excited about applying that knowledge to assist with experiments that current astronauts would be performing in preparation for future missions.
“My internship revolved around [XR] because NASA likes to train astronauts with that,” Josh said. “I got to try and use my mechanical side to make some physical tools that the astronauts could use that would be synced up with a VR headset with Bluetooth.”
After arriving at the space center and meeting with his mentors, Josh was given the freedom to independently research his tasks, how he could accomplish them, and designs for the final physical product. Once he received feedback, he assisted with 3D printing and assembling parts.
Bringing the Past to the Present
Josh was heavily involved in creating two mock-up experiment devices, both of which could be replicated by the Artemis campaign (NASA’s current program to send humans back to the moon) and used for their own experiments.
“I decided to use inspiration from previous experiments from the ‘60s when we went to the moon way back then, and I modernized it,” Josh said.
The 1960s were when NASA first attempted to get humans on the moon, commonly called the Apollo Era. For Josh’s mock-up experiments, he focused on seismic and magnetic field data and found counterparts that were done in the 60s that could be realistically done today.
Instead of collecting data like a real experiment, the mock-ups would transmit what the user is doing to VR so the VR can simulate the experiment. There are many perks that come with VR training, so Josh and his team created physical mock-up tools that would help replicate future experiments and situations astronauts may encounter and test.
The first mock-up experiment was a seismic activity inducer staff. While on the moon, astronauts would walk in a line and then have charges from the staff go off, creating small explosions and seismic activity. The data would allow them to see what the moon might look like below its surface.
For the second mock-up experiment, Josh helped create a magnetometer. When deployed, the device would gather data from magnetic fields and transmit it back.
Josh was also involved in other projects. While the other XR interns did programming work in 3D modeling for different simulations, Josh assisted them with a photogrammetry project, which involves taking multiple pictures of an object and reconstructing it into a 3D model. Together, they took photos of rock samples, 3D printed them, and placed motion trackers in them so they could be detected and seen in VR training.
Growing a Dream
Looking back on his time in Houston, Josh expressed how fantastic the co-op was. It was rewarding seeing how all of his work turned out at the end of the program and getting to connect with helpful mentors and peers.
Plus, he had the opportunity to explore the Houston area with his girlfriend, Emma Regner ‘26, a York College student studying Nursing, visiting beaches, downtown, and the zoo.
Josh also had the opportunity to interact with a few astronauts. He was even permitted to sit in Mission Control and watch the Florida launch of SpaceX Crew 11.
“I got to network with my circle of XR people and AI people - that was super cool,” Josh said. “I sat in a lot of AI meetings. It’s interesting how far that technology has come and what the plans are for it. I also met with some robotics people and other people doing heavy machinery robotics. And then I met with some people online from other space centers.”
Now that the internship has concluded, Josh will enter his junior year with a new amount of experience. He has gained a new interest in AI and XR technology and wishes to delve deeper into computer science, which may even become a new minor.
One thing is for sure: when Josh has to complete his second co-op requirement, he will aim for another internship involving aerospace engineering in some capacity and continue chasing his dream of furthering space research.
“This was a very motivating experience,” Josh said. “I got to see a lot of really cool engineering and see how people are working on different problems. I’m going to try and take that into my classes and my future work experience and my life in general.”
