“I’m shifting to Boston in three weeks!” At my highschool commencement, I had simply discovered I’d been accepted into the Interphase EDGE program, an unbelievable alternative to acclimate to life at MIT earlier than the 2022 faculty 12 months started.
I used to be glad to have that likelihood, since I confronted a giant change from life at house 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 Area Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, the place I first fell in love with aerospace engineering.
It didn’t take lengthy to seek 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 begin a brand new crew 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 crew. “MIT already has a Rocket Crew,” 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 discovered to design, construct, launch, and safely recuperate a mannequin rocket. However doing that alongside different Indigenous engineers on the crew we name MIT Doya (ᏙᏯ, Cherokee for beaver) has taught me greater than engineering abilities. Past studying the way to work with composites or design fins, I’ve discovered the way to navigate courses and join with professors. I’ve discovered about grad faculty. And I’ve discovered the way to have a good time my Indigenous id and honor my ancestors with my work. For example, we frequently maintain smudging ceremonies—burning sage to purify ourselves or our rockets—at our crew conferences and competitions.
Our crew emphasizes common consensus and buy-in on the technical aspect and pays consideration to the success of every crew member on a private degree. We name this gadugi (ᎦᏚᎩ) in Cherokee, or “everybody serving to one another.”
I’ve additionally discovered that embracing my tradition can provide a greater method to engineering challenges. Whereas many engineering settings foster top-down decision-making, our crew checks and incorporates as many concepts as potential to interact everybody, emphasizing common consensus and buy-in on the technical aspect whereas being attentive to the success of every crew 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 crew.
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 regarded as much as the senior members of the crew, seeing in them proof of what an Indigenous pupil at MIT will be and attain. And I’ve liked mentoring newer members, passing alongside what I’ve discovered 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 satisfy my heroes and seen that it’s potential 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 Area Camp—I returned to Huntsville as a lunar payloads intern on the Mark I Lunar Lander at Blue Origin.
By means of the FNL crew, 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 laptop mannequin with accuracy in each geometry and mass distribution. From that mannequin, I can run simulated flights whereas adjusting for numerous launch circumstances and making an attempt out totally different motors. A small change on the bottom can yield a giant change in our last altitude, which should be inside a particular vary—so this evaluation drives the general design.
In our first 12 months, our problem was to re-create the design of a equipment rocket whereas making it lighter by fabricating all of the elements ourselves, primarily utilizing hand-laid carbon fiber and fiberglass. We completed in second place and have been named Rookie Crew 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 toes), unfold from a compact stowed configuration to 16 by 16 inches, descend by parachute to 500 toes, after which launch the parachute for piloted navigation to a touchdown pad. To fulfill FAA necessities, two of our crew 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 thing would combine nicely for the ultimate launch. As crew captain, I managed this coordination whereas staying concerned on the technical aspect as methods and simulations lead and airframe lead. And as we labored our manner by way of the challenge milestones from proposal by way of flight readiness evaluation, we stored in thoughts that we wanted each an operational drone and a protected flight to the correct altitude to satisfy the problem.
In April our crew traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to place our rocket to the check. We loaded the parachutes and payload, blessing it with some medication earlier than sending our onerous work into the sky. However after I went to load our motor, the motor mount fell off in my hand. We shortly proceeded to the vary security officer, who was capable of 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 received the grand prize! Together with bragging rights, we received a VIP journey to Kennedy Area Middle in August and received to stroll by way of the long-lasting Car Meeting Constructing, discover the shuttle touchdown strip, see Polaris Daybreak on the launchpad, and watch a Starlink launch from the seashore within the early morning hours.
This 12 months, I’m honored to function crew captain once more, main an expanded crew as we deal with 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 at times. 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 crew.