Sydney Dolan’s journey is rooted in a passionate commitment to responsible stewardship of both space and our planet.
As a doctoral candidate in the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro), Dolan is innovating a model designed to reduce the risk of satellite collisions. They view space as a shared resource, vital for everyone’s use. “We must be mindful to avoid potentially compromising an entire orbit due to excessive collisions,” they emphasize. “Maintaining access to space for its many applications is crucial.”
On Earth, Dolan’s dedication extends to fostering community and ensuring fellow students thrive. They actively mentor peers, lead affinity groups for women and the LGBTQ+ community, and develop resources to help students navigate graduate school more effectively.
Charting New Pathways in Aerospace
Dolan’s fascination with aerospace ignited during high school in Centerville, Virginia, thanks to a friend’s invitation to a model rocket club. “I went with her and found it more engaging than she did!” they share with a chuckle. Constructing and launching rockets instilled a hands-on appreciation for aerospace engineering, guiding their academic choices thereafter.
Choosing Purdue University for its prestigious aerospace program and striking facilities, Dolan soon recognized the significant gender imbalance within their department. This experience inspired them to establish Purdue Women in Aerospace, aimed at fostering connections and promoting a more inclusive environment. This initiative included creating welcoming study spaces for women and organizing the first Amelia Earhart Summit to honor female contributions to aerospace, which gathered hundreds of students, alumni, and industry professionals for a day of networking and insightful discussions.
During their junior year, Dolan secured a position in the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program, connecting students with commercial space companies and mentors. Their internship at Nanoracks involved developing a small cubesat payload for the International Space Station. There they met MIT AeroAstro alumna Natalya Bailey ’14, whose guidance proved invaluable as they pondered potential graduate school applications, with MIT emerging as a standout choice.
Dolan explaines the appeal of MIT, stating, “I was uncertain if I wanted to focus on systems engineering or specialize in guidance, navigation, controls, and autonomy. MIT’s program excels in both areas.” This flexibility allows them to pivot should their interests evolve.
Advancing Responsible Space Practices
This adaptability proved beneficial. In their master’s program, Dolan engaged in two significant research projects within systems engineering. They started in the Engineering Systems Laboratory, comparing lunar and Martian mission architectures to optimize technology deployment. They later contributed to the Media Lab’s TESSERAE project, focused on creating tiles that could autonomously self-assemble into space habitats and laboratories, where they researched control systems and the use of computer vision.
For their PhD, Dolan shifted focus to autonomy, particularly in satellite traffic management, by joining the DINaMo Research Group under the mentorship of Hamsa Balakrishnan, an esteemed professor in Aeronautics and Astronautics.
With the rise of commercial space ventures, the complexities of managing satellite traffic have intensified. The number of satellites in orbit has surged, increasing collision risks. At speeds around 17,000 miles per hour, satellites can inflict catastrophic damage, generating debris that exacerbates the threat to operational spacecraft. The European Space Agency estimates approximately 11,500 satellites, with over 35,000 pieces of debris larger than 10 centimeters currently in orbit. Just last February, a NASA satellite narrowly missed colliding with a defunct Russian satellite.
Despite these mounting hazards, a centralized authority to supervise satellite maneuvers is lacking, and many operators are hesitant to disclose exact satellite positions. Dolan’s doctoral research addresses these gaps by developing a model that allows satellites to autonomously plan evasive maneuvers based on information from nearby satellites. Their approach combines reinforcement learning, game theory, and optimal control to create a graph-based representation of the space environment.
Dolan envisions this model as a decentralized management tool that could inform regulatory policies: “I am fully behind the concept of being a responsible space entity, treating space as a precious resource, akin to our national parks. This mathematical model is a step toward validating the importance of accessible information.”
Cultivating Community and Passion
Now in their fifth year, Dolan has actively participated in the MIT AeroAstro community since 2019. They have mediated in the dREFS program, mentored fellow women students, and co-presided over the Graduate Women in Aerospace Engineering group. As a communications fellow in the AeroAstro Communications Lab, Dolan has spearheaded workshops and resources aimed at improving students’ scientific communication skills.
Dolan founded QuASAR (Queer Advocacy Space in AeroAstro) in 2020, an inclusive affinity group open to all department members. This community gathers for social events and panels that reflect diverse identities within the aerospace industry.
Outside academia, Dolan embraces ultrarunning, tackling distances greater than a marathon. They’ve completed races of up to 120 miles in a backyard ultramarathon. “It’s a great outlet for stress,” they say, amused by the prevalence of fellow PhD students in the sport. “When I mentioned to my advisor that I love it, she politely questioned my sanity, but I thrive on challenges with ambiguous endpoints.”
Dolan’s dedication is palpable as they near the end of their time at MIT. After obtaining their doctorate, they aspire to secure a faculty position, merging their love of aerospace engineering with a commitment to mentoring students. Reflecting on their future journey, Dolan muses, “I’m throwing a lot of darts at the wall; we’ll see where they land, and then it’s up to the universe.”
Photo credit & article inspired by: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
