FARGO — A North Dakota State University student has out-of-this-world ambitions.
Emily Mikhail is a senior at NDSU, double majoring in mechanical engineering and physics. In summer 2025, she interned with NASA, researching technology that will help future missions to the moon. The scholarship is worth up to $15,000 in tuition.
Mikhail spent 10 weeks at the NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia. She was able to meet astronauts and attended a NASA conference in Houston.
Her research focused on plume surface interaction, which will make it safer and easier to land on the moon.
“The goal is, you know, how can we learn as much as we can about what happens during landing without having to actually send humans there because it’s expensive, it’s hard, it’s dangerous,” Mikhail said.
Mikhail’s research will help the Artemis III mission, which is planned to be the project’s first mission to land on the moon.
Kjersti Maday joined WDAY as a reporter in May of 2024. She is a native of Granada, Minnesota and graduated from Minnesota State University Moorhead in 2015.