Boston Leadership Institute: 2021

The summer of 2021 I did a three-week residential program at the Boston Leadership Institute for their Mars Mission. While I was there I learned all about Mars and what it would take to send people there, including rocket designs, life support, rover designs, farming, and habitats. I did many different engineering projects while I was there, including building a rover out of cardboard, designing and 3D printing a habitat and spaceship/rocket, doing various levels of egg drops (the eggs representing astronauts), designing water filtration systems, and building and launching a model rocket with a group. I also studied the effects of Martian soil on kale plants, and did an independent research project on energy systems for Mars, focusing on solar/wind hybrid models. I learned a lot about Mars and space travel, and got to do a lot of hands on activities that helped me develop problem solving skills and further my interest in space and engineering. While I was there, I also met a lot of smart kids my age who were interested in the same things I was, and I really enjoyed being in that intellectual environment. Below are a few pictures of the projects I worked on, along with my research presentation.

Here are me and a group mate separating soil from kale roots to prepare it to be planted in “Martian” soil for an experiment.

Here is a simple water filtration system I made. The dirt collected on the bottom was what was filtered out of the water.

Here’s the rocket I constructed with two other people ready for launch. It was named “Timmy Turner” due to its stunning pink and green hues, reminiscent of the fairies who guided Timmy Turner in the TV show “Fairly Odd Parents”.

Timmy Turner after four launches, when the parachute finally failed.

Me with my first project in the program, an egg drop contest. I went overboard with the balloons, but my partner and I were trying to simulate the balloons used to land a Martian rover.