Boarding The Shuttle (9/28-10/4)

This week marked the official start of our original work, for which I intend to develop an academic journal which delineates the fundamentals of spacecraft design suitable for aspiring aerospace engineers in high school to gauge whether they would like to enter the spacecraft design subdiscipline of aerospace engineering or not. The greatest challenge this week was definitely determining what I wanted to do for my original work. Originality and creativity are both skills that are highly sought after (as well as ones that I specialize in) which is why the requirements for the original work stirred my spirit. I put in a lot of time and thought into developing my idea. I considered my own perspective first - what exactly did I want to do and learn about? As I had already identified my interest in spacecraft design in my topic proposal, with the aid of in-depth research and my background knowledge on the matter, it was fairly simple to determine the medium of my original work. Through my initial research, I discovered that there was an absence of information related to spacecraft design online for aspiring aerospace engineers, which prompted me to take action to solve the problem (as dictated by my engineering instincts). I feel successful this week; I took a significant step towards my dream of designing my own spacecraft, and hopefully my original work will serve as the perfect basis for my final product. Coincidentally, as I was designing my original work proposal, a few ideas on what I could work on for my final product sprung from my efforts. One worth mentioning was designing my very own 3D model of a spacecraft (only the external structure) designed to survive Mars’s atmosphere in Inventor and run it through a series of aerodynamics and thermodynamics tests to prove its viability as a real solution to conquering the Red Planet. While the project seems to be very ambitious, I feel that it is within my ability. I wonder if I will have sufficient knowledge from my original work to create my final product as well as access to the necessary resources when the time comes - I should start looking into those issues immediately. Next week is the Business Symposium where I will be able to test my communication skills and practice conducting interviews in order to prepare for when I eventually start conducting research interviews with professionals in the field of aerospace engineering. I have high hopes for my original work and plan on utilizing all the resources within my grasp to ensuring it becomes something I can take pride in.