You sound like you're off to a good start, but I highly recommend that
you learn the proper use of the return key.
On 2021-03-16 03:49, Gram Nylen wrote:
Hey Charlie,
I may not be the most qualified individual in this thread but I
thought that I would still provide my inout as it may be of some use.
I currently 16 years old and I am high school student in Southern
California. While I can't speak with any aerospace industry experience
behind me I can speak to having pondered your exact series of
questions what now seems like a time that was 10^13496932528 years
ago. Just before entering High School I read a book and realized I
really had to get my academic act together if I wanted to catalyze
succeeding in life now, just as I would predict you are, I was
fortunate enough to have a rough goal in the near future (IE:
Aerospace engineering and in my case via ROTC). Somehow I got the
notion that MIT was (and still is) my dream or top or reach school,
however you'd like to put it. Regardless, from there I watched every
single "Acceptance Stats" video I could find on YouTube and through
watching those videos I learned about a lot of STEM programs available
to high school students and the rough ballpark I had/havs to shoot for
in terms of academic performance. Now I am fortunate to attend my
states 2nd best public High School in terms of STEM and just general
academics so I was already walking into a campus with a great Science
Olympiad team, Various specific Olympiad competitors at the national
level, ISEF science fair competitors, and etc... So I did whatever
could to immediately join the community of people in those
organizations. Once again, this is another great way to learn about
other competitions and programs and "you are only as good as the
people you hang around with". But I digress, once I had established
what school associated extracurricular activities I wanted to
participate in I went about exploring and finding things to do that
catered to my specific interests. For example, as someone interested
in all things Aero Astro I became a student pilot (and I have recently
applied to an AOPA scholarship program that, assuming I get accepted,
will pay for all of my flight training). I also became active on
Aero/College Twitter and so far this has proved to be one of the best
movies I have made. I can not stress enough how much it has paid off
and just been extremely entertaining to follow and engage with people
in the industry or at the colleges I dream of attending on Twitter.
There I have learned lots of wisdom, industry jargon, and once again
information regarding programs and advice. Twitter is also how I ended
up on here. ("Pro" tip-don't hesitate to ask people questions on
tiwtter or enage with what someone is saying regardless if they are
Tom Mueller or even Elon, as long as you aren't saying something
totally stupid there is a non-zero chance you'll get a reply). Tangent
over, as my academic skills developed I eventually picked up a copy of
Sutton's book and read it over the Summer (the propulsion lead for the
perseverance Rover happened to catch me reading the textbook and gave
me his email to ask him any questions I had, story for another day but
definitely a moment to remember). Many people have already provided
great input that j concurred with, 1. learning to code is a great
skill and can be used everywhere from feeding your fish to programming
flight computers to competing in capture the flag or general computer
science competitions. 2. Don't expect to build your own F1 engine by
the time you are done with high school. While liquid engines certainly
can be taimed they are difficult and EXTREMELY expensive. Just Google
"Krytox", that is just the lubricant you will need to work with LOX.
With that being said, you can still realistically get your NAR L1
license (I built my rocket in a moving car the night before my launch)
and build systems like what Joe Barnard has done. 3. Take advantage of
the opportunities around you while realising your position. You aren't
going to be serving as a lead propulsion technician while in high
school chances are but maybe if you ask your local aerospace company
nicely you can score a summer position literally sweeping floors as
one said but that is still valuable experience. Also, your local
college probably has a rocket or engineering team that you can join. I
have "joined" my local university's rocket team (UCIRP) but I have not
been able to actually participate in any serious capacity due to
COVID. Alright, that is what has already been said. I apologize for
making this so long I just feel very… strongly about this. Another
great thing to do is to read and read as much as you can. That is how
I got interested in all of this in the first place after all, I have
read literally every single book middle school me could find relating
to the Sr-71 blackbird and Kelly Johnson's Skunkworks. I recently
blasted through Liftoff, a book about the Falcon 1, and there are many
other great titles out there like Ignition. There are many other
technical skills that you can learn or at least practice as well right
now, CAD (contact me privately for a solidworks student license)
welding, Matlab, etc... Before I end I want to remind you again that I
am only 16 and still can't even tell you where the bathroom is at 1
rocket road, MIT, or KSC. PS: If anyone else has read this far and
works in socal and wants a summer intern who will do literally
anything, please message me.
Thanks,
Gram Nylen
gramnylen@xxxxxxxxxx
(1)949-343-2317
University High School, Irvine, Ca 92612
On Mar 16, 2021, at 02:04, Norman Yarvin <yarvin@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
There isn't much knowledge in rocketry that's actually unique to
rocketry. Basic physics and chemistry is applicable in every other
form of engineering too; it's the foundation of them all. When you
have an opportunity to learn from someone really good, do so even
when
it's not directly applicable to rocketry; such opportunities are
rare.
Careers are a matter of economics: you want to be providing a skill
that's in demand at the moment, and that depends on what the outside
world is demanding. What demand for rocketeers will be like a
decade
from now when you're looking for a job is hard to guess. In every
business there are cycles of interest and demand followed by
oversupply and jobs being hard to find, so don't be too dismayed if
you find you're making another use of your skills. You might even
get
sucked into a place like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acbnyagl8jo
"So you're a rocket scientist?"
"I was."
"Interesting. How did you end up here?"
"It's all just numbers, really; just changing what you're
adding up; and to speak freely, the money here is considerably
more attractive."
That's not making a recommendation -- those people were _not_ having
fun, and from a societal point of view were causing a great deal of
havoc -- just saying why it's hard to make a recommendation, and why
it's safest to learn core skills and be flexible. Yes, it's a
movie,
but the phenomenon of people with good math skills getting sucked
into
finance is quite real, and was especially prominent around that
time.
The havoc was also quite real, though of course (as Wernher von
Braun
could tell you) one can also produce havoc by being devoted to
actual
physical rocketry.