Space has interested me since I was a child. From an early age, I gazed at the stars and planets and wondered about travelling to space and what it takes to actually get there. The more I learned, the more I wanted to become an engineer. I wanted to build spacecraft and airplanes; not just fly them. I cultivated my interest in space and engineering through my involvement in various organizations and activities.
While a Boy Scout, I earned many of the science-oriented merit badges, including Space Exploration, Nuclear Science, Astronomy, and Robotics. Later, my Eagle Scout project involved using basic engineering principles to change the gradient on the east side of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Valentine, Nebraska to redirect water away
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Aerospace engineering is one of the main sub-disciplines of mechanical engineering. At Cornell, I could learn about aerospace engineering in courses such as Introduction to Spaceflight Mechanics, Propulsion and Power, and Spacecraft Technology and Systems Architecture. I might also learn about programming and robotics in classes such as Robotic Learning, Machine Learning, and Foundations of Artificial Intelligence, which teach principles that could be used to design, model, and control space probes and manned spacecraft used to explore deep space. Current Cornell research, such as the designing of a robotic system to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa or developing robotic techniques to build systems in space, provides opportunities to learn all aspects of new and interesting systems. Involvement in student organizations, such as the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Baja SAE, would allow me to interact with professors and fellow students with similar interests. These clubs would provide unique experiences outside of the