Tyler Leger

Mr. Strosnider

ERWC

29 April 2024

Integrity Essay

Everyone says that integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching. But to

me, it’s more than that. It’s holding yourself to a higher standard than others. Integrity isn’t just

something you do, it’s a part of your life. Integrity is one of the most important personal traits to

have in your life, and realistically speaking, is not at all hard to do. SpaceX’s new Starship rocket

serves as a great example of what integrity means to me and how it affects my life.

Structure:

4-millimeter 304L stainless steel, the basic structure of Starship. This allows all

necessities to be placed inside for Starship to function, from fuel to hydraulics to the flight

termination system, without which would just be a hunk of metal. The structure in my life is my

home, the place where I start and end every day, where I do almost everything, and where my

life revolves around. Without a home, I would be, well, homeless. Without a home, I would have

no consistent way to start my day. Every hour would be a mystery and I wouldn’t have a bed to

look forward to at the end of every night. With my home, I can plan out the next few years of my

life and get where I want to go in life.

Style:

Many people would say that Starship is just another rocket built for going to space. That,

however, could not be more wrong. And if you ask me, Starship is the most unique rocket to ever

be even thought of, let alone be built and flown 3 times now. There are many unique, defining

features on Starship, the most noticeable of which is the reflective silver body. Starship is the

only rocket in the world to ever be built and not painted, leaving the shiny bare metal exposed

for the world to admire. Another defining feature of Starship is its sheer size, towering over the

launchpad as the biggest rocket to ever be built at 397 feet tall. One of the most unique features

of Starship is that it is built to be 100% reusable. How might SpaceX do that? Heat tiles, grid

fins, and aerodynamic flaps. The Superheavy Booster is fitted with 4 massive grid fins to help

guide it through the atmosphere when it’s coming back to land. Starship itself has one-half of its

hull completely covered in heat tiles to help it withstand the extreme heat it encounters when

re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. Without these heat tiles, Starship would disintegrate on re-entry.

Starship also has 4 aerodynamic flaps to assist with re-entry as well. Sure, the heat tiles help a

ton with re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, but without a way to control the aerodynamic forces on

the vehicle, Starship would tumble out of control and eventually burn up. The final and most

defining feature of this rocket is not in its looks, but what it was designed for. Starship was built

solely for bringing humans to Mars. It is the only rocket in the world built specifically for

interplanetary travel, not only to Mars but back to Earth as well. Like Starship, I have defining

features as well, some big and some small. I’ve always liked taking pictures with my phone ever

since I got one. I recently got a professional camera and ever since then I’ve been taking pictures

with it almost every day, and in the process, I’ve learned a lot about photography and have
dramatically increased the quality of my images. I also have quite a severe aviation addiction that

comes with a lot of knowledge about the aviation world. Combine that with my photography

skills and now I’m an aviation photographer that hundreds of people support on Instagram.

Moving on to the more defining features of my life, I’ve been a part of the US Naval Sea Cadet

Corps ever since I was 11 years old in 2016. Since then, I’ve worked my way through the ranks

and have now achieved the highest rank possible of Chief Petty Officer. Additionally, I joined

AFJROTC in freshman year, worked my way through their ranks, and am now a Cadet Captain.

Finally, I believe my most defining feature is that I am a pilot. I currently have 32 flight hours

and am working towards my private pilot license. I have only met 4 other people at this school (3

of whom are in JROTC with me and one who has already graduated) who are pilots, which is

why I believe that this is my most defining and unique feature.

Cohesion:

Starship is made up of multiple different parts and it can be life threatening if things don’t

go the way they’re supposed to. The biggest part of the connection with Starship is between itself

and the Superheavy Booster. To keep Starship on top of the booster and not topple over, the

booster has clamps that lock into Starship until booster separation. Once it’s time for booster

separation, the outer ring of engines on the booster will shut down while the inner 13 engines

will throttle down but stay lit, the 6 engines on Starship will light (this is called hot staging), and

finally, the hold down clamps will release Starship to continue on its journey to space. What

makes the wheels turn in my life and bring everything together has to be my mom. She’s always

there for whatever I need and has cared for and raised me my whole life. She has always made
sure I had what I needed and that I was happy. My mom is honestly the sole reason that I’ve

gotten as far as I have because, without her support, all my accomplishments would still just be

wild dreams.

Strength:

Flying is no easy feat, especially when it comes to drag. For aircraft, or anything that flies

for this matter, you must deal with the 4 forces of flight: thrust, lift, weight, and drag. When it

comes to rockets, however, you only have to deal with thrust, weight, and drag, because rockets

technically do not fly, they boost themselves through the air and above it to get to space. Thrust

is not at all an issue due to Super Heavy’s 33 Raptor engines producing 16,700,000 lbf of thrust

at full power. Weight is also not much of an issue because anything that would be too heavy for

Starship to carry wouldn’t actually fit in the rocket itself. And now we come to drag, a small but

very important detail when it comes to flight. The sleek, aerodynamic design of Starship allows

it to slice through the thicker parts of Earth’s atmosphere before it reaches the vacuum of space.

Starship's aerodynamic design reduces drag and increases the fuel efficiency and maximum

payload it can carry to orbit. In addition to that, its design also reduces aerodynamic forces the

vehicle experiences upon reentering Earth’s atmosphere. What strengthens me against the

stressors of life are a few things. To start, being a photographer is a big stress reliever in my life.

Whenever I need a break with whatever I’m currently doing all I have to do is grab my camera

and go somewhere. Now that “somewhere” could be anywhere from taking pictures of

Hummingbirds in my backyard after doing homework to leaving at three in the morning and

driving for four and a half hours to just outside of Las Vegas to Nellis Air Force Base to take
pictures of fighter jets flying 200 feet above your head. Whatever kind of photography it may be

and however crazy it may seem, it is a huge stress reliever for me and something I truly enjoy

doing. Another stress reliever is watching sunsets, which I also unsurprisingly take pictures of.

There’s just something about sunsets that I find peace in and every chance I get I’ll watch the

sunset. And in most cases, I’ll drop whatever I’m doing at the time to go watch it. One more

thing that strengthens me, this time physically, is going to the gym. Every day after school I

immediately go to the gym. There, I’ll spend around 2 hours working on whatever muscle group

I have chosen for the day. In all, photography, sunset watching, and going to the gym help me

relax, recharge, and get ready for the next tasks that come my way.

Durability:

When launching a rocket, you can’t just light the engines and send it on its way and hope

everything goes according to plan, it is a very long, drawn-out process with multiple teams and

computers working to keep the rocket on a nominal trajectory and ensuring the vehicle is healthy.

The biggest component of Starship that allows it to get to where it needs to go (since it is still in

its suborbital phase) are the flight computers. These computers regulate anything and everything

that happens inside Starship. Telemetry, fuel flow, altitude data, the flight termination system,

and thousands more are all controlled by Starship's onboard flight computers. Even when

humans on the ground attempt to give commands to Starship, they first must be approved by the

flight computers, because ultimately, the computers know what's best. Another component that

heavily impacts the performance of Starship is the throttle control. It is 100% possible to reach

orbit with an engine that is firing at full power until it’s turned off, however, it’s much more
efficient if you use throttle control during ascent, and in the Super Heavy Booster and Starship’s

case, reentry and landing as well. These features on Starship and Super Heavy ensure that both

vehicles reach their intended target point in the best way possible. What keeps my goals a

lifelong plan are two things: my dedication and love for what I want to do in life and the

government. I am absolutely in love with all things aviation and wouldn’t trade anything in the

world for it. It’s been my dream to be a Naval Aviator ever since I was three years old and

nothing will make me do something else. I am extremely dedicated to what I want to do for a

living. The other factor that makes my plan lifelong is the government, specifically the DoD. The

minimum contract that Naval Aviators have to sign is 10 years of active duty. I plan to stay in for

anywhere from 20 to 40 years, so the government will control me for a while.

Direction:

Keeping a rocket as large as Starship on track throughout its launch isn’t easy. What

keeps Starship pointing in the right direction during ascent is its 33 Raptor engines. The engines

are in a ring configuration with 20 engines in the outer ring, 10 in the middle ring, and 3 in the

center. The outer 20 engines are fixed, meaning unmovable, and the inner 13 have gimballing

capabilities. Gimballing is defined as “When a thrust chamber is swung by an attached actuator”,

or in more simple terms, movable. This allows the engines to move in any way they need to in

order to keep the rocket on a nominal trajectory. It is also much more efficient than having

control surfaces that a plane has like elevators, ailerons, and rudders, reducing drag by a large

margin. It is also more efficient than having thrusters to steer the rocket, as thrusters use fuel and
would not only take away from the fuel that the engines are already using but would also add

more weight. What keeps me moving in the right direction is my family. They’ve supported me

in pretty much everything I’ve ever done. They’ve all known about my dream to fly for the Navy

since I was 3 and they’ve all been the biggest supporters of that dream. So without a doubt, my

family empowers me to go in the right direction in life and pursue my dreams.