My name is Ben Santos, and I am a sophomore at Eaglecrest High School in Colorado. For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by space. I have gone through several different desired professions, but it has almost always been related to space. Originally, I wished to be an astronaut (as so many kids do), before that changed to astronomy. However, in fifth grade, my class closely followed the Perseverance and Ingenuity mission. My teacher had a connection with someone who had worked on the legs of Ingenuity, and when we had a Zoom call with her, I immediately knew: That was what I wanted to do.
After that, my first connection with Higher Orbits came about because of an essay contest. Each year, AIAA hosts a space-related essay contest for seventh and eighth grade students, and in seventh grade, I decided to enter. The topic of the contest was to research an element of the James Webb Space Telescope and explain how it leads us to new discoveries about the universe. I decided to research the Near-Infrared Spectrograph, and I ended up winning first place for seventh grade, both regionally and nationally. As a reward, my parents signed me up for Go For Launch! Space Coast in 2023, and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Despite not winning, I was immediately pulled into Higher Orbits for good.
Just under two years later, I got the opportunity to attend my second Go For Launch! event at the Colorado Air and Space Port in April 2023. My team ended up tying for first place at the event, and that experiment is currently in review! At this point, I was deep within Higher Orbits, and since then, my involvement has soared! I entered the Higher Orbits essay contest, and, as one of the winners, had my photo launched to space on the SpaceX Transporter-14 mission. I also attended the Higher Orbits 10th Anniversary celebration and plan to attend the alumni gathering in Chicago next summer.
I was very excited when I was chosen to attend the AIAA SciTech forum. Because of the limited number of aerospace engineering-related opportunities available to me, the chance to attend this conference seems like the perfect way to extend my involvement in the aerospace industry past just Higher Orbits. I am looking forward to exploring the conference, hearing the stories of others in the industry, and all the incredible things that are happening in aerospace and everything that is possible in the industry.
I hope that this experience will help me explore further into the aerospace industry, extending my knowledge, involvement, and more. I hope that SciTech will help connect me to aerospace more than I have been in my past, and I hope that the opportunity will help to propel me further in Higher Orbits. I know that this experience will be incredible, and I can’t wait for it to come!
Written By Stellar Student Ben Santos
