Charlie Fenske of Edgartown has loved rockets since he was in the sixth grade. Now 16 and a junior in Falmouth Academy, Charlie has ridden that interest by coming up with a rocket design that landed him a winning spot in the Google Science Fair, a six-year-old international competition sponsored by the Google website and some blue-chip partners that include National Geographic, Scientific American, LEGO Education, and Virgin Galactic.
Though Charlie’s project began as an assignment for the science fair at Falmouth Academy, he said, “I’ve liked rockets since before I can remember. I went to space camp, rocket launches, everything.”
The Virgin Galactic Pioneer Award was presented to Charlie in Palo Alto on Sept. 27. He won the prize in his age category in the contest, which attracts thousands of entries from teens ages 13 to 18 from around the world; their biographies and scientific developments across a wide range of disciplines are viewable on googlesciencefair.com. He eventually topped 16 finalists to win the top award for his work on making rockets more efficient and cheaper.
Charlie designed a synthetic jet propulsion system that makes a rocket weigh significantly less. Rockets have mechanically complex fins at their base to regulate their direction when flying. These fins, while effective, are heavy, and require a lot of fuel to propel them into outer space. Making the fins lighter would save fuel, and therefore save the organization sending the rocket into space money, while being more environmentally conscious to boot. Charlie tested multiple different fin types on rockets to determine which would provide the best aerodynamic control.
To test the different types of fins, Charlie built a wind tunnel and, he said, “I was launching rockets over Katama to get my data.” He found synthetic jet actuator fins to be the most effective at balancing weight and maneuverability.
It was with those findings that Charlie won the Falmouth Academy Science Fair and then advanced to the regional and state science fairs. Once those were over, however, he decided to enter his project in the Google Science Fair in Palo Alto; students ages 13 to 18 come from all over the world to compete in the four-day competition.
The science fair has numerous awards, such as the Community Impact Award or the National Geographic Explorer Award. The Virgin Galactic Pioneer Award, which Charlie won, is given to a project that solves an engineering challenge in a hands-on way. The winner receives a $15,000 educational scholarship, a yearlong mentorship, and a tour of the Virgin Galactic, Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, Calif.
Charlie is already thinking about next year, and beyond. He hopes to use his educational scholarship at MIT or CalTech to pursue a doctorate in aerospace engineering. He hopes to work at a commercial space-flight company like Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, or Boeing.
He said, “It’s hard because so much of the aerospace field is already developed, or the experiments require expensive equipment, but I think I’d want to do something with airplanes.” Charlie has recently expanded his interest in airborne science, and has begun building range-model unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) airplanes and drones. “I always try to optimize everything I encounter, which is the basis of engineering,” he wrote in his bio.
The reaction by his schoolmates was notable, according to Head of School Stephen Duffy: “Charlie’s achievement has been a great source of school pride, which is most often provided by sports, but the students cheered and applauded resoundingly every time Charlie passed a competitive milestone along the way to the finals.
“Part of that relates to a requirement that every student from seventh grade on compete in our annual science fair, so everybody knows what is involved in a project like Charlie’s. And he is a great kid, very popular. His passion for science is intense; he’s been known to help competitors improve their presentations,” Mr. Duffy said.
Wherever aerospace leads him, Charlie says, “I just want to invent things and help people. That’s all it is.”