“I’m transferring to Boston in three weeks!” At my highschool commencement, I had simply realized I’d been accepted into the Interphase EDGE program, an unbelievable alternative to acclimate to life at MIT earlier than the 2022 faculty yr started.
I used to be glad to have that probability, since I confronted a giant change from life at dwelling in Claremore, on the Cherokee Nation reservation in northeastern Oklahoma. I’d been away by myself solely as soon as, on a fifth-grade journey to House Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, the place I first fell in love with aerospace engineering.
It didn’t take lengthy to search out group on campus. To my shock, out of the dozen college students at a welcome occasion for the Indigenous group, three grad college students and an undergrad have been within the aero-astro division. As a potential Course 16 main and a FIRST Robotics alum, I used to be excited to find that they deliberate to start out a brand new staff for the First Nations Launch (FNL) rocketry competitors, a NASA Artemis Scholar Problem. It was the right alternative to merge my technical ardour with my cultural roots.
That first yr, many individuals questioned the necessity for our staff. “MIT already has a Rocket Staff,” they’d say. However whereas most construct groups are outlined by the particular tasks they work on, the product is only one side of the expertise.
Sure, I’ve realized to design, construct, launch, and safely get better a mannequin rocket. However doing that alongside different Indigenous engineers on the staff we name MIT Doya (ᏙᏯ, Cherokee for beaver) has taught me greater than engineering expertise. Past studying how one can work with composites or design fins, I’ve realized how one can navigate courses and join with professors. I’ve realized about grad faculty. And I’ve realized how one can have fun my Indigenous id and honor my ancestors with my work. As an illustration, we regularly maintain smudging ceremonies—burning sage to purify ourselves or our rockets—at our staff conferences and competitions.
Our staff emphasizes common consensus and buy-in on the technical aspect and pays consideration to the success of every staff member on a private degree. We name this gadugi (ᎦᏚᎩ) in Cherokee, or “everybody serving to one another.”
I’ve additionally realized that embracing my tradition can supply a greater method to engineering challenges. Whereas many engineering settings foster top-down decision-making, our staff exams and incorporates as many concepts as doable to have interaction everybody, emphasizing common consensus and buy-in on the technical aspect whereas being attentive to the success of every staff member on a private degree. We name this gadugi (ᎦᏚᎩ) in Cherokee, or “everybody serving to one another.” And we discover it’s led to raised technical outcomes—and a greater expertise for everybody on the staff.
I really feel extremely lucky to work carefully with different Indigenous college students on an engineering challenge all of us deeply care about. I’ve seemed as much as the senior members of the staff, seeing in them proof of what an Indigenous pupil at MIT could be and attain. And I’ve cherished mentoring newer members, passing alongside what I’ve realized to assist them excel.
Our launch weekends broaden our group additional, permitting us to work alongside inspiring Indigenous engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and Blue Origin. I’ve gotten to fulfill my heroes and seen that it’s doable to succeed as a Native American in aerospace engineering. The truth is, my FNL experiences have already helped me safe a tremendous internship. Final summer time—precisely a decade after setting my coronary heart on aerospace engineering at House Camp—I returned to Huntsville as a lunar payloads intern on the Mark I Lunar Lander at Blue Origin.
By means of the FNL staff, I’ve considerably superior my technical expertise. As our techniques and simulations lead the primary yr, I built-in all of the parts of the bodily design right into a cohesive pc mannequin with accuracy in each geometry and mass distribution. From that mannequin, I can run simulated flights whereas adjusting for varied launch situations and attempting out completely different motors. A small change on the bottom can yield a giant change in our ultimate altitude, which should be inside a particular vary—so this evaluation drives the general design.
In our first yr, our problem was to re-create the design of a package rocket whereas making it lighter by fabricating all of the components ourselves, primarily utilizing hand-laid carbon fiber and fiberglass. We completed in second place and have been named Rookie Staff of the Yr.
For 2023–’24, our problem was to construct a rocket massive sufficient to hold a deployable drone, main us to construct an airframe 7.5 inches in diameter. We additionally needed to design and fabricate the drone’s chassis to fulfill strict specs: It needed to match contained in the rocket on the launchpad, deploy at apogee (ours was 2,136 ft), unfold from a compact stowed configuration to 16 by 16 inches, descend by parachute to 500 ft, after which launch the parachute for piloted navigation to a touchdown pad. To satisfy FAA necessities, two of our staff members studied for and earned Half 107 distant pilot certificates so they may function the drone.
Since this new problem required us to manufacture a rocket whereas additionally designing and constructing the drone, we broke up into two subteams to work on each in parallel. This method required exact coordination between the subteams to make sure that every part would combine effectively for the ultimate launch. As staff captain, I managed this coordination whereas staying concerned on the technical aspect as techniques and simulations lead and airframe lead. And as we labored our means by the challenge milestones from proposal by flight readiness assessment, we stored in thoughts that we would have liked each an operational drone and a secure flight to the fitting altitude to fulfill the problem.
In April our staff traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to place our rocket to the take a look at. We loaded the parachutes and payload, blessing it with some medication earlier than sending our exhausting work into the sky. However once I went to load our motor, the motor mount fell off in my hand. We rapidly proceeded to the vary security officer, who was in a position to salvage our rocket and our launch with the last-minute addition of an exterior motor retention gadget. After that minor (however virtually catastrophic) delay, we had a secure launch and profitable restoration—and earned the Subsequent Step Award, a $15,000 grant to signify FNL within the College Scholar Launch Initiative, a NASA-hosted competitors open to everybody, for the 2024–’25 season.
Six weeks later, when the general competitors winners have been introduced, we have been thrilled to study we had received the grand prize! Together with bragging rights, we received a VIP journey to Kennedy House Middle in August and received to stroll by the enduring Car Meeting Constructing, discover the shuttle touchdown strip, see Polaris Daybreak on the launchpad, and watch a Starlink launch from the seaside within the early morning hours.
This yr, I’m honored to function staff captain once more, main an expanded staff as we sort out the challenges of the brand new Scholar Launch Initiative. I’m already wanting ahead to Could, once we’ll launch the rocket we’ll be perfecting between at times. And to honor our Indigenous heritage and ship it into the sky with good intentions, I’ll make certain we smudge earlier than flight.
Hailey Polson ’26, an aero-astro main and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, is captain of MIT’s First Nations Launch staff.