Space. Arguably the most captivating regime of science that exists. Learning about the planets, asteroids, human missions to the moon, among other topics, while in elementary school allowed me to become who I am today. In kindergarten I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, upon which I wrote astronaut on my sheet of paper. Though other career ideas, like being a monster truck driver or professional soccer player crossed my mind through the upcoming years, anytime space was mentioned, it brought me right back to this dream from when I was young.
During the summer of 2013, my family and I moved from Wisconsin to Oklahoma. Moving to a new school was hard as I knew no one, but it allowed me to get a fresh start in my studies. Putting my head down and asking my teachers to challenge me as much as they could, I spent my time learning anything and everything I could. As I grew older, I looked for opportunities outside of school to be immersed in space. Unfortunately, the state of Oklahoma does not offer too much in relation to this. During the summer entering my junior year of high school, I attended Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. With the idea of space in the back of my brain since being little, a week-long immersion into the industry truly confirmed that this is where I wanted my life to go. But there was one problem; aerospace is so vast. From commercial airliners to autonomous drones to interstellar probes, I had narrowed my career down to aerospace but still had a million different options in front of me.
Wanting to narrow this down even more, I traveled the next summer (2020) to Spring Grove, Illinois, where Higher Orbits was hosting a Go For Launch! event. Upon arrival to the event, I felt totally in my element. Surrounded by likeminded students all with similar passions eased the tension of traveling to a new place. The event started with crafts, lessons, and talks from people like Astronaut Wendy Lawrence. Over the next few days, myself and my team of two fellow students, termed Luna Loco, would design an experiment that, if chosen, could be conducted on the International Space Station. After some research, my team decided on delving into the ability for a bacteria called Dechloromonas Aromatica to reduce perchlorates in Martian regolith. For the first time in my life, I was designing, engineering, iterating. Fully immersed in the STEM environment, this is what I decided I wanted to do with my life. Higher Orbits brings together research, science, engineering, and cohesive implementation all into one project. After presenting our idea, we were one of two projects chosen to move forward. Further research, a paper, and answering questions from Michelle Lucas, astronauts, and other aerospace professionals caused our project to become a finalist on the national stage. Though not ultimately winning, the experience of Higher Orbits helped narrow my college degree down to aerospace engineering and really confirm that I wanted to move forward doing similar things like designing science experiments for space.
So where does this lead to in present day? 3 ½ years after my time with Higher Orbits and I am a junior working towards my B.S. in Aerospace Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Having been a member of ERAU’s chapter of AIAA during my first two years, I am now a member of the Embry-Riddle Orbital Research Association working on research CubeSat’s. Being able to continue similar sort of work to that done during Go For Launch! has allowed time to fly by. Among these projects, I am also the secretary of the Aerospace Engineering Student Advisory Board helping facilitate positive change in the department, as well as have been working on a contract with DeepFlow LLC to look into hypersonic combustion CFD models. As I write this blog, we are just over a week away from AIAA SciTech 2024 where I will be able to speak with Higher Orbits about my experiences. Though these many things could have happened simply by chance, I attribute where I am at today and the trajectory of where I want my life to go to my time at Go For Launch!.
Written By – Zach Martin
