Once again, I stumbled on something fascinating (and a little unsettling) — the Universe 25 experiment. Conducted by John B. Calhoun back in the 1960s–70s, it started off as the dream life for mice: unlimited food, water, nesting material, no predators, no diseases. Basically, the mouse version of heaven.
But spoiler alert: it ended in total collapse. Yep, utopia turned dystopia real quick.
A curious realization struck me over the past few days: the way I dress seems to change not only how others perceive me, but also how I carry myself, how productive I am, and even whether I feel motivated to step outside my house. For instance, when I wear a professional outfit — a shirt, trousers, and a tie — I notice an immediate shift in my posture, my speech, and my overall caution in behavior. Even outside professional settings, I continue to embody that “formal” mindset. In contrast, during a recent two-day holiday at home, I stayed in loose, comfortable clothes, skipped dressing properly, and even avoided showering. The result? I spent most of the time lying down, scrolling on my phone, with zero productivity and no inclination to go out. This raised a personal question: Do my clothes truly affect my mood and productivity, or am I simply imagining this connection?
ReadAfter wrapping up our first ever flight computer, we officially became part of our college's rocketry team. A month later, we had that meeting. You know, the one with the chaotic "WHAT’S NEXT?" vibe. It was less of a meeting and more of a parliament debate. Some of us wanted to dive into liquid propulsion (ambitious, I know), others were hyped about boosters. But given our resource constraints, we all found common ground on one thing—let’s go for a two-stage rocket. And because being realistic is boring sometimes, we didn't settle at 1 km or 3 km. Nah—we shot for 8 km. Why? Because we were high on dreams (and maybe caffeine). So, we began our research and designed our test rocket, lovingly named "Venessa." A two-stage beauty. But this time, she wasn't just pretty—she was smart. Two brains smart: "GRACE" and "NERVE"—redundant flight computers because we did learn from our first crash-and-burn attempt. This blog is about my GRACE—because this one’s close to heart.
ReadOne year ago, when I applied to join my college’s rocketry team, we were handed a challenge that felt like being thrown into deep water with floaties still in the packaging: “Form your own team and build a fully functional model rocket. You’ll figure it out.” So I did. I was responsible for developing the avionics system — the brain of the rocket that decides what happens, when. With no prior hands-on experience in aerospace systems and just enough knowledge of microcontrollers to feel dangerous, I dove headfirst into the unknown. This is the story of how I designed, built, and launched my first Flight Computer (FC) — what worked, what broke (literally), and what it taught me about engineering, failure, and curiosity.
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