“I’m shifting to Boston in three weeks!” At my highschool commencement, I had simply realized I’d been accepted into the Interphase EDGE program, an unimaginable alternative to acclimate to life at MIT earlier than the 2022 college yr 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 by myself 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 had 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 Scholar Problem. It was the proper alternative to merge my technical ardour with my cultural roots.
That first yr, many individuals questioned the necessity for our group. “MIT already has a Rocket Crew,” they’d say. However whereas most construct groups are outlined by the precise tasks they work on, the product is only one side of the expertise.
Sure, I’ve realized to design, construct, launch, and safely get well 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 rejoice my Indigenous id and honor my ancestors with my work. For 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 aspect 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 interact everybody, emphasizing common consensus and buy-in on the technical aspect whereas being attentive 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 raised technical outcomes—and a greater expertise for everybody on the group.
I really feel extremely lucky to work intently with different Indigenous college students on an engineering undertaking all of us deeply care about. I’ve appeared as much as the senior members of the group, seeing in them proof of what an Indigenous scholar at MIT could be and achieve. And I’ve liked mentoring newer members, passing alongside what I’ve realized to assist them excel.
Our launch weekends develop 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. 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 group, I’ve considerably superior my technical abilities. As our techniques and simulations lead the primary yr, 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 varied launch situations and making an attempt out completely different motors. A small change on the bottom can yield a giant change in our closing altitude, which should be inside a selected 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 had been named Rookie Crew of the 12 months.
For 2023–’24, our problem was to construct a rocket giant 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 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 group 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 strategy required exact coordination between the subteams to make sure that the whole lot would combine effectively for the ultimate launch. As group 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 approach by way of the undertaking milestones from proposal by way of flight readiness evaluation, we stored in thoughts that we wanted each an operational drone and a secure flight to the best altitude to fulfill the problem.
In April our group traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to place our rocket to the check. We loaded the parachutes and payload, blessing it with some drugs earlier than sending our laborious 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 machine. 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 had been introduced, we had been thrilled to be taught we had gained the grand prize! Together with bragging rights, we gained a VIP journey to Kennedy Area Middle in August and acquired to stroll by way of the long-lasting 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 yr, I’m honored to function group captain once more, main an expanded group as we deal with the challenges of the brand new Scholar Launch Initiative. I’m already wanting ahead to Might, once we’ll launch the rocket we’ll be perfecting between every now and then. And to honor our Indigenous heritage and ship it into the sky with good intentions, I’ll be 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 group.
