Phoebe Wall 2019 National Gold Award Girl Scout, Aero/Astro student at Stanford University
Phoebe Wall is a 2019 National Gold Award Girl Scout and aero/astro student at Stanford University. For their Gold Award project, Phoebe founded and led a digital literary magazine for queer youth. They are passionate about improving queer representation in media and the mental health of young queer people. Their magazine gained traction in over 40 countries, including nations where homosexual activity is illegal.
As Spaceshot Co-Lead in the Stanford Student Space Initiative (SSI), one of the largest project organizations on Stanford’s campus, Phoebe is leading a project to launch a rocket off of a high-altitude weather balloon to pass the Kármán line. When the project succeeds it will be both the most economical method by orders of magnitude and the first open-source platform to get to space. Phoebe’s involvement in SSI also includes co-leading a project team building a machine to autonomously create bricks from Martian regolith, and they’re in the finalist round for a proposal to make these bricks on the International Space Station. They also are co-leading a project team building a muon detector and co-leading the simulations for the liquid bipropellant rocket team. Phoebe and three other students on SSI’s Policy Team had plans to present on sustainability and human heritage in space to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in March before the pandemic rescheduled the meeting to a still undetermined date. Phoebe is passionate about the intersections of aerospace engineering and environmental sustainability.
Previously, Phoebe partnered with NASA and Dr. Mark Weislogel of Portland State University to conduct microgravity fluid physics research. Phoebe’s work included developing a mathematical model of bubble production in flows driven by capillary action, a model they used to propose modifications to spacecraft heat transfer systems. They’ve presented their research at the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research conference three years in a row, winning 3rd place and 4th place in the poster competitions and also the Student Investigator Spaceflight Award from the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS). Phoebe has also assisted with hybrid propulsion research in the Stanford Propulsion and Space Exploration (SPaSE) Lab.
Phoebe’s professional experience includes interning on Firefly’s Alpha vehicle design and analysis team, modeling GSE systems for the small startup Green Launch, a NASA internship, and beginning as a Pathways Intern at NASA Marshall this January.