The Sky's The Limit

Matt Clancy is reaching for the stars. The 25-year-old Chelmsford, Massachusetts, native is helping to develop the world’s first 3D-printed reusable rocket capable of launching commercial payloads to the moon, Mars and beyond. 

Clancy, who earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from UMass Lowell in 2020 with a minor in aerospace studies, says the skills he learned at UMass Lowell prepared him for his job as a lead propulsion engineer at Relativity Space in Long Beach, California, where he helps develop and test the subsystems for the Terran R rocket’s Aeon engines. 

“The minor made me appreciate the fundamental engineering challenges in the aerospace field,” he says. “The breadth of engineering coursework it covered allowed me to better understand the type of role I wanted to pursue in industry.” 

As an undergraduate, Clancy received a space science fellowship to work at the university’s Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology (LoCSST), which is headed by Physics Prof. Supriya Chakrabarti. There, Clancy supported ground communications for SPACE HAUC, UML’s first student-built cube satellite, which was launched into Earth orbit in 2021 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and deployed from the International Space Station. Clancy also interned at LoCSST, designing support structures for the PICTURE-D mission, which will send aloft a high-precision telescope to the edge of the stratosphere via a helium balloon to search for Earthlike exoplanets around nearby stars.

In his senior year, he participated in an industrial capstone student team working with industry partner Collins Aerospace to redesign a drone’s structural member, using 3D printing.

“Through my experiences with LoCSST and UML’s aerospace minor and capstone project, my aerospace career pathway became a reality,” Clancy says.

The global space economy is growing, thanks to the commercialization of space led by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Space economy refers to activities that explore, understand, manage and utilize outer space for the benefit of society. These activities include designing, manufacturing and launching rockets and satellites for communication, navigation, TV broadcast, weather observation and defense, as well as establishing space observatories and sending space probes across the solar system and beyond.

According to the Space Foundation, a space flight advocacy group based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the world’s space economy grew 8% to $546 billion in 2022 and is projected to climb another 41% over the next five years.

In the U.S., in 2021, the country’s space economy accounted for $211.6 billion of its gross output, $129.9 billion (0.6%) of GDP, $51.1 billion of private industry compensation and 360,000 private industry jobs, according to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

“Before this minor was offered, there were no aerospace programs or offerings at public universities in the region.” -Mechanical Engineering Assoc. Prof. David Willis

To help sustain this growth and meet the expected workforce demands of the space industry, a steady supply of highly skilled scientists and engineers is imperative. 

One way to support this goal is through UML’s aerospace studies minor. This interdisciplinary program, which started in fall 2018, allows students with a passion for aeronautics and/or space sciences to gain deep understanding, education and hands-on training in these fields. The minor is open to all undergraduate students and is particularly well-suited for those majoring in mechanical engineering and physics.

“Before this minor was offered, there were no aerospace programs or offerings at public universities in the region,” says Mechanical Engineering Assoc. Prof. David Willis, the minor’s program coordinator. 

UML’s aerospace studies curriculum consists of 24 credits, with the required courses of Introduction to Aerospace, Differential Equations, Dynamic Systems and Controls, Physics I, and Space Science Mission Design. Students must also successfully complete three elective courses on topics ranging from space weather and radar systems to aerodynamics and flight mechanics, autonomous robotics systems and experimental characterization of composite materials. 

“The minor offers a good introduction to the aerospace field, which involves many disciplines in addition to one’s regular coursework,” says Mechanical Engineering Assoc. Prof. Marianna Maiaru, who is an expert on advanced composite materials manufacturing. “It helps point students in the right direction in their academic careers by allowing them to focus on a particular aspect of the field to see if they like it or not.” 

Willis says the aerospace studies minor can provide students a leg up on the competition after graduation. 

“Students can leverage the minor as an expression of their interest and initial preparedness to work in aerospace and related fields when interviewing for jobs or pursuing graduate studies,” he says. 

For mechanical engineering junior Miklos Haranghy, his passion for flight and space exploration began when he was growing up in Budapest, Hungary, building model airplanes, going to airshows and observing the night sky with his telescope.

Now, he is on his way to launching his dream career as an aerospace engineer, thanks to the education and hands-on experience he is getting at UMass Lowell. After earning a bachelor’s degree in economics and mathematics from Columbia University, he decided to come to UMass Lowell to pursue a second bachelor’s degree with a minor in aerospace studies.

“The aerospace minor has really opened up doors of opportunities for me,” says Haranghy.

Last summer, Haranghy interned at Boeing, one of the world’s leading producers of military and commercial aircraft. Working as a systems engineer at the company’s global services headquarters in Plano, Texas, he collaborated closely with Boeing’s electrical, software and systems engineers to help integrate hardware and software in their R&D units, verifying, validating and testing the units after new updates, reworking electrical circuits and handling other responsibilities. 

“I learned a massive amount of things by getting exposed to many different software (packages), systems engineering tools, a lot of electrical work, coding to write test scripts, troubleshooting and much more. It was an amazing experience,” he says. 

Haranghy continues to work part time for Boeing remotely while taking classes. “I’m going back to Plano next summer, then working part time again for my last year and going back full time after graduation,” he says.

Merely taking the aerospace minor can give students a leg up with companies seeking particularly focused employees, notes mechanical engineering senior James Kiikka of Reading, Massachusetts. 

“The companies where I have interned or done a co-op recognize that adding an aerospace minor to any major requires dedication and passion, which they admire in an employee,” he says.

While minoring in aerospace, Kiikka recently completed an online aerospace seminar offered through Arizona State University called the NASA L’SPACE Program, in which students from around the U.S. gather in teams of 12 to 20 to write a preliminary design review for a hypothetical space mission in response to a NASA request for proposals.

“This seminar is well-known in the aerospace community, and NASA recognizes it as a strong résumé enhancer for students looking to get into the aerospace field,” says Kiikka. “My experience with the minor’s Space Science Mission Design course, taught by Prof. Chakrabarti, had prepared me well for the rigor of the seminar.”

For mechanical engineering senior Aidan Skidmore, who is originally from Tucson, Arizona, his passion for aerospace was sparked in middle school with his first model rocket for his science class. In high school, he founded the Plymouth South High rocketry club and then later served as president of UMass Lowell’s Rocketry Club. Today, he is part of the UML student team that will participate in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Design-Build-Fly (DBF) competition of unpiloted, electric-powered, radio-controlled aircraft, to be held in April in Wichita, Kansas.

“The aerospace minor has equipped me with essential tools for success in my professional journey,” says Skidmore. “Engaging in hands-on projects like DBF and delving into advanced aerospace concepts has expanded my knowledge and sharpened my skills. It nicely complemented the subjects covered in the mechanical engineering curriculum.” 

When it comes time to enter the job market, Skidmore feels like he will have an advantage. 

“This focused expertise sets me apart from other mechanical engineers in the job market, which can make a real difference,” he says. 

Last summer, Chakrabarti was awarded nearly $5.5 million by the state and the Innovation Institute at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to develop a new hub at the university that offers a one-stop support system for researchers and businesses looking to design, build and test small satellites and spacecraft components.

Called the Massachusetts Alliance for Space Technology and Sciences (MASTS), this consortium of 22 research universities, community colleges, aerospace and defense companies and research-focused nonprofits from around the world will be based at LoCSST’s facility in Wannalancit Business Center near East Campus.

“The MASTS funding will support infrastructure investments at LoCSST to help develop key space technologies and provide research opportunities for UML students,” says Chakrabarti. 

These technologies include the construction of design, fabrication, testing and validation facilities for nanosatellites and satellite constellations, as well as innovations in advanced imaging optics, sensors, materials, power, cooling and navigation systems, communications electronics and antennas, and other mission-critical subsystems.