Being an Intern at KMI
Cash Bilton, Orbital Archivist Intern
4 minute read
When KMI began posting positions for our summer 2024 internship positions, I listed an opportunity that focused on data analysis. I expected to interview students studying mathematics, statistics, or maybe computer science, and there were several of those, but I was also surprised by an engineering student who applied. As I read their resume I realized there was a good chance that they matched what I had been looking for, and as time would tell, Cash showed his value above and beyond expectations. As his manager, I got the chance to push his skills with new and advanced tasks, often resulting in lessons learned for the whole team as Cash shared his knowledge and understanding after completing the task in record time. The following paragraphs are Cash’s own words describing his summer at KMI and the excellent work he accomplished while here. - Adam Kall, Director of Science.
As a kid, I moved around a lot. My dad worked for the park service, so we lived in a ton of different national parks, and each one had one thing in common: the dark skies above. Growing up in these areas that are free from light pollution I was able to see the stars, constellations, and even our own Milky Way. As I got older I was fascinated by the STS missions and later SpaceX with Falcon and Starship. When I entered college I wanted to pursue a future in aerospace, and I saw this best through engineering. I was looking through my email one day and saw that this local aerospace company was giving a talk at Michigan Tech and I was very interested in going, but unfortunately missed the meeting. A few days later I once again was checking my email and saw that they had a summer internship position available and I was very curious to apply. After an initial application and interview I landed here at KMI, and all I had to do was move 2 hours away to live with my aunt and three cats!
Kall Morris Inc is a wonderfully unique and awesome place to be an intern. I was originally hired for the Orbital Archivist position, which entailed learning as much as I could about space debris and collecting that data into a large database for later use. I was required to learn about coding Python and other automation-related topics. As my background was in engineering, this was totally unique to me. I was super grateful for the people around me as they helped me learn as much as I could about this software from showing me the basics to some more advanced data collection and filtering techniques. After making significant progress on this project, my manager was curious to make use of my engineering background and so he put me on to modeling and 3D printing the satellites and rocket bodies I had just learned a ton about. I was super excited to be able to use my knowledge to create these models and after some troubleshooting with the printers I was able to get these models out. I was also able to expand on the knowledge I had gained from using Blender to make super detailed models for other company projects.
Not only is KMI a great place to learn new skills, but also a super fun place to work and has wonderful people. KMI has a work style that suited me perfectly, with more emphasis placed onto getting projects done rather than just “getting your hours in.” I am the kind of person who finds it really hard to work for eight hours straight. After a while I get bored, distracted, or a combination of the two, so being able to go home and then work from midnight to 2am because that is when I can focus on getting stuff done is super amazing. The people here also help lend to this more relaxed but focused atmosphere. There were quite a few days this summer that I was able to talk with many of the employees here to just ask about the work they do and even questions about what to do in my future schooling. Everyone was super happy to answer my questions. I was able to talk for quite a few hours with other engineers about a variety of topics from printed circuit board (PCB) design to finite element analysis (FEA) analysis, to even getting a masters degree and dealing with awkward social situations. Talking about all these topics made me feel more welcome and excited to come into work everyday. Everyone at KMI was so incredibly nice and wonderful to work with and I couldn’t have asked for a better place to work for 12 weeks.
Other fun memories were getting to know the other interns, as well as getting to know Marquette. Activities ranged from visiting local kombucha shops, the weekly farmers market, to the Blueberry Festival, as well as learning about all the tea in the local area. A few more moments that stand out are Billy telling me the occasional dad joke (they got worse every time), in addition to talking video games with Zach and Tom. Also Adam, talking about all the fun and wacky ideas that popped into his head from the movie or game he recently went through, building a fridge out of rubber bands, or the space forge and throwing things at the moon. All of these smaller moments lead up to making KMI who they are - a bunch of awesome people with many cool ideas.
I would love to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone at KMI because they made what was otherwise a boring summer into an incredibly interesting and fun one. I wish them all the best and good luck in the future!
- Cash Bilton <3
Recommended column to read next: Summer of Law and Space Debris