Ever since I was little, planes, rockets, and pretty much anything that could fly has fascinated me. One of my earliest memories is of getting a model Saturn V rocket. I would sit late at night on my bedroom floor with the rocket on my lap as I carefully mimicked the launch of the legendary rocket, making sure to break at nine seconds for “ignition sequence start” and to yell after zero “liftoff” even though now I know the callout was “all engines running.”
Ever since those early days, I have been obsessed with the aerospace world. I spent hours watching SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Rocket Lab all become major private aerospace companies, studying up on old planes like the X-1 and the F-104 as well as researching modern planes like the F22, the F35. I read and then re-read and then re-re-read memoirs from Scott Kelly and Chris Hadfield as they went into detail about their time on the International Space Station as well as “The Right Stuff”. I even accomplished an honors project with Sarvjit studying rocket and jet fuel and took the time to do an intro course in Aerospace Engineering through MIT’s 16.00x online course and the USC Explore Engineering summer program.
Today, I am excited to study the topic that has so engulfed me for my entire life in college. Yet, I’m still not a hundred percent sure what it means to be an aerospace engineer and what their work entails. This is what led me to my essential questions: What are the design elements of a plane and how have they changed over time? What is it like to fly those planes and how does that affect the design process? What are the design elements of spacecraft and rockets and how have they changed over time? What are the commonalities between both and at the end of the day which do I enjoy studying the most? Through these questions, I hope to end up coming to a conclusion of what exactly it is I would be studying in college and which field (between aerospace and aeronautical engineering) I enjoy the most.
After deciding on these questions, I was left wondering how exactly I could accomplish this goal, which led me back to my experiences earlier this year with online classes. Classes like 16.00x have already given me a good introduction to the field of aerospace engineering, but there are more classes out there to go more in-depth and get a better understanding of the field. Classes like 16.885x or Intro to thermodynamics will give me a better understanding of the field while also allowing me to learn information that will be greatly beneficial to me in college. I could also pair these classes with classes on the history of both space and powered flight as well as advanced math and science classes to accomplish and answer many of my essential questions.
While this is a great plan for my project if COVID makes it impossible for me to work outside, I also came up with another plan that would allow me to accomplish these goals in a much more exciting way. This would be through an internship or volunteering at the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum. The Intrepid offers a large collection of both air and spacecraft from different eras and a massive veterans group that holds knowledge that is both unrecorded and fleeting. Working at the intrepid would allow me to work side by side with these aircraft as I simultaneously learn about them in online classrooms which would provide unparalleled depth and opportunity.
On a day-to-day level, an internship at the Intrepid would likely look like giving short lectures on the different planes on the flight deck, running small tours around the ship, giving lectures inside the Concorde, and possibly talking about the growler and the Polaris missile (the US’s first submarine-based nuclear missile), which they have classified as “exhibit explainer.” I could also volunteer to help restore aircraft onboard the ship, or even shadow veterans, getting the chance to learn from the people who flew and worked on those planes. After finishing working at the Intrepid (which I am assuming would entail relatively normal hours) I could go back home and still take online classes on these subjects, allowing me to pair hands-on knowledge and experience with “classroom” knowledge.
At the end of my project, I will hope to have learned a deep breadth of knowledge in the field and will be prepared to make a decision in college on what specifically I want to study. I can share this with the community in several ways, like a slides presentation on what I’ve learned, to a paper or a poster.
Looking realistically into the future, it is hard to say for certain whether the Intrepid will be an option. Currently, the museum is closed due to winter, paired with the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the museum has every plan to reopen soon and will likely need people willing to work weird hours. Additionally, the requirements to be a volunteer are threefold: you must be over 18, you must work at least 8 hours a month and you must volunteer for at least a year. The first two of these are no problem at all, however, because of college I obviously will not be able to continue to volunteer for the entire year. Finally, I know that the volunteering program was put on pause last year because of COVID, but I have also heard from a family friend I have at the museum that they are looking to restart the program when they reopen. If you choose to approve my project, I could have these questions answered rather fast through a few emails to museum executives and have a clearer path moving forward. If working on the Intrepid is impossible, then there are other small local museums here in NJ that I could work with/visit to get a similar experience, albeit to a much smaller scale and without the constant exposure volunteering on the Intrepid would give me. I also know that the staff would be more than willing to connect me to veterans and volunteers for online events.
Thank you so much for reading my pitch! I hope to see you aboard the Intrepid in April!