“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 college 12 months 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 alone 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 neighborhood on campus. To my shock, out of the dozen college students at a welcome occasion for the Indigenous neighborhood, 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 group for the First Nations Launch (FNL) rocketry competitors, a NASA Artemis Pupil Problem. It was the right alternative to merge my technical ardour with my cultural roots.
That first 12 months, many individuals questioned the necessity for our group. “MIT already has a Rocket Group,” they’d say. However whereas most construct groups are outlined by the particular initiatives they work on, the product is only one facet of the expertise.
Sure, I’ve realized to design, construct, launch, and safely recuperate a mannequin rocket. However doing that alongside different Indigenous engineers on the group we name MIT Doya (ᏙᏯ, Cherokee for beaver) has taught me greater than engineering abilities. Past studying how you can work with composites or design fins, I’ve realized how you can navigate courses and join with professors. I’ve realized about grad college. And I’ve realized how you can have a good time my Indigenous id and honor my ancestors with my work. As an example, we regularly maintain smudging ceremonies—burning sage to purify ourselves or our rockets—at our group conferences and competitions.
Our group emphasizes common consensus and buy-in on the technical facet and pays consideration to the success of every group member on a private stage. 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 strategy to engineering challenges. Whereas many engineering settings foster top-down decision-making, our group assessments and incorporates as many concepts as doable to have interaction everybody, emphasizing common consensus and buy-in on the technical facet whereas listening to the success of every group member on a private stage. We name this gadugi (ᎦᏚᎩ) in Cherokee, or “everybody serving to one another.” And we discover it’s led to higher technical outcomes—and a greater expertise for everybody on the group.
I really feel extremely lucky to work carefully with different Indigenous college students on an engineering undertaking all of us deeply care about. I’ve regarded as much as the senior members of the group, seeing in them proof of what an Indigenous pupil at MIT will be and achieve. And I’ve beloved mentoring newer members, passing alongside what I’ve realized to assist them excel.
Our launch weekends increase our neighborhood additional, permitting us to work alongside inspiring Indigenous engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and Blue Origin. I’ve gotten to satisfy my heroes and seen that it’s doable to succeed as a Native American in aerospace engineering. In reality, my FNL experiences have already helped me safe an incredible internship. Final summer season—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.
Via the FNL group, I’ve considerably superior my technical abilities. As our methods and simulations lead the primary 12 months, 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 numerous launch situations and attempting out completely different motors. A small change on the bottom can yield a giant change in our remaining altitude, which should be inside a selected vary—so this evaluation drives the general design.
In our first 12 months, 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 Group of the 12 months.
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 satisfy 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 fulfill FAA necessities, two of our group members studied for and earned Half 107 distant pilot certificates so they might 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 strategy required exact coordination between the subteams to make sure that every thing would combine properly for the ultimate launch. As group captain, I managed this coordination whereas staying concerned on the technical facet as methods and simulations lead and airframe lead. And as we labored our method by way of the undertaking milestones from proposal by way of flight readiness evaluate, we saved in thoughts that we would have liked each an operational drone and a protected flight to the proper altitude to satisfy the problem.
In April our group 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 after 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 protected launch and profitable restoration—and earned the Subsequent Step Award, a $15,000 grant to symbolize FNL within the College Pupil 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 be taught we had gained the grand prize! Together with bragging rights, we gained a VIP journey to Kennedy House Heart in August and received to stroll by way of the enduring Automobile 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 12 months, I’m honored to function group captain once more, main an expanded group as we sort out the challenges of the brand new Pupil Launch Initiative. I’m already wanting ahead to Could, after we’ll launch the rocket we’ll be perfecting between from time to time. And to honor our Indigenous heritage and ship it into the sky with good intentions, I’ll ensure 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 group.
