Intern helped develop Astronaut life support

Hayam Al Blooshi Under an historic agreement between the UAE's Arab Youth Venture Foundation and NASA, the 16th and latest elite Emirati researcher Hayam Al Blooshi has returned home from a four month mission internship at the U.S. Space agency. The Abu Dhabi female engineering graduate conducted specific activities in the design, construction, and testing of advanced spacecraft water recycling to assure precious resource sustainability in space.
At NASA Hayam was partially responsible for design of mechanical systems, fabrication and assembly, pressure safety documentation and controller performance optimization to address the need to supply drinking water to astronauts in flight. Such technologies will be integrated into NASA's next generation life support systems.
Hayam Al Blooshi said: “Working with leading scientists at NASA was a unique opportunity and I gained so much knowledge in the field of my studies while gaining further skills in other key areas such as resource scarcity and sustainability. While at NASA I participated in a panel discussion ‘An Introduction to the UAE', in order to give the NASA research community an insight into our culture and economic diversity. I hope my achievement will be a motivation for younger female Emirati to work hard and fulfil their dreams.”
Lisa LaBonte, CEO, Arab Youth Venture Foundation commented, "Like with much of NASA's ground-breaking space research, what emerges are ancillary terrestrial applications —in this case, water recycling methods and technologies that have direct relevance for green building infrastructure and other sustainable water recycling systems to be used here on earth. The UAE nationals are thoroughly engaged and are excelling in such leading edge research. Engineering design provides yet further evidence as to the world class intellect, motivation and abilities of our Emirati youth.”
Envisioned by AYVF in UAE in 2007, the NASA-AYVF Innovative Partnership Program was signed in 2009 and launched in 2010. The program selects only the brightest Emirati university engineering students to spend up to four months at NASA in the US. In 2011 NASA began using the UAE/AYVF model for its international internships.