Arabian Stargazer: Meet Diana Alsindy, the woman who’s teaching young people about science and space, in Arabic – The National

Two years ago, rocket engineer Diana Alsindy typed a seemingly straightforward query in Arabic on Google: Why do satellites not fall from the sky? she asked.

Her search returned zero answers.

But when Alsindy typed the same phrase in English, she was inundated with pages upon pages of information.

There were hundreds of articles, with videos and illustrations and graphics, says the Baghdad-born Alsindy, a propulsion engineer at Boeing in California.

[Arabs] were pioneers in maths, astronomy, calligraphy and so many of the technologies we use to this day were discovered by Arab scientists and engineers. And it seems like we kind of went downhill.

If were expecting to expand the Arab world [in science and technology], how do you expect people to learn if youre not saying it in their language?

Instead of complaining, Alsindy, 27, whose family immigrated to the US from Iraq in 2008, decided to do something about it. She launched the Instagram account @TheArabianStargazer that same year in 2018, posting science, technology and engineering as well as space exploration content in Arabic and English.

It was an immediate success, quickly winning her a steady following mostly from Arabic speakers around the world. The account now has more than 110,000 followers.

When you make it normal to talk about science in Arabic, more people feel included. If I hear someone speaking in Japanese, I wont listen to it, because I dont understand it. You need to deliver that inclusivity, she says.

From questions about wearing veils in space, to the challenges of being a Muslim astronaut and how young female students can convince their parents how they can work in a male-dominated career such as space, Alsindy says she gets hundreds of questions from her followers all over the world.

Two years ago, I received a message from a girl and she said, I am from Egypt and that I really look up to you and I want to be in this field one day.

We kept in touch and a year later she got it touch again and said she was messaging me from her dormitory in Stanford University and thanked me for being an inspiration. She said she wouldnt have applied for Stanford if it wasnt for my platform and was really thankful to be there. She went straight from Egypt to an Ivy League school and thats so amazing.

When we immigrated, I barely spoke English. So I didnt even think of which career I was going to be in

There are detractors too, she notes.

I sometimes get comments like Youre a woman, you should be in the kitchen. Im a scientist and engineer and they still think its OK to say say these things, she laughs. But the positive feedback is way more than the negative. So its cool.

Alsindys desire to share her knowledge in Arabic was born out of her own experience growing up in the US. She was 14 when her parents moved her and two younger siblings from Baghdad to San Diego, California.

When we immigrated, I barely spoke English. So I didnt even think of which career I was going to be in, she recalls.

Her father, who studied mechanical engineering in Iraq, worked as an artist in the US. But Alsindy thought being an engineer could give her more options as a career.

In school, she says she really enjoyed maths and physics because there wasnt one way of doing something.

You can always solve an equation or a formula in so many different ways, she recalls.

When Alsindy was 19, she read an article about a female scientist and engineer, who was part of the crew at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, which was replicating life on Mars.

They were simulating life on the planet to see if humans could live on there. She was wearing the space suit and walking on red dust and rocks. And the story really caught my attention.

I never before thought about space that way and I never thought you could have a career in space.

Alsindy says she picked chemical engineering as her major in university so she could find opportunities in different careers just in case aerospace engineering didnt work out.

Still, Nasa seemed like a world away then, she recalls.

I kept looking for opportunities but whatever I did, it seemed like Nasa was so far way and there was no way I could reach it. And Nasa seemed to be the only place I could be if I wanted to be in space, she says.

But she was wrong. At the University of California, San Diego, which she joined in 2014, Alsindy was the Propulsion Team Lead at an undergrad group who had a passion for space.

Called Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, the group took part in Nasas Cube Quest Challenge a competition to build flight-qualified, small satellites capable of advanced communication and propulsion near and beyond the moon. Their entry, called Triteia, was a 3D-printed engine thruster, which could propel a satellite into the moons orbit.

Our engine was made from 90 per cent hydrogen peroxide, which means that there was only one place that could give us the facility to test it Nasa. The competition was three years long and evaluated every three months when we had to present the evolution of the design as we competed against high schools, other universities, graduate students and companies, she explains.

This meant a lot of meetings with Nasa. They did critical design reviews, preliminary design reviews and test readiness reviews, and it really exposed me to what the space industry was really about. It wasnt my physics class, it wasnt my maths teacher who taught me how to solve an equation, it was this hands-on experience I used all of these acronyms and methodologies as a professional working in space.

Alsindys team didnt win but working in that environment exposed her to space and what space really means, she says.

It doesnt mean you have to wear a suit and go to space and walk on rocky ground. It doesnt mean you have to be a genius in maths or physics or chemistry. It simply meant finding the right people, the right experiences and opportunity and applying your skill sets and know what youre good at.

Alsindy later became the Propulsion Development Engineer at Virgin Orbit, working on the LauncherOne rocket, which took off for space in January. She says she started The Arabian Stargazer soon after to share her love for space and clear misconceptions about its accessibility, especially in the Arab world.

There is a misconception that this is a difficult career to get into. Its just a little tricky because there isnt a clear path thats straight through, she says.

Ive always had this desire to be cause-driven and I have documents on my hard drive way before the Arabian Stargazer on how I can give back to the community using my strengths. And Ive had this feeling of I need to give back to the Arab world.

That aspiration has taken her on speaking tours around the Middle East, including the UAE, where she spoke at the Dubai Airshow in 2019. Her ultimate mission is much bigger, she says.

Ive talked to various organisations on how I could do internship-style fellowships for Arab students. Being in the space industry really opened my eyes to the fact that in order to really flourish in a certain career, especially engineering and space, you have to be in an environment where you can really explore things by hand. Also, to know if you like this before you commit to a full-time job. And that experience doesnt exist in the Middle East, she says.

The UAE, which has been leading the Arab world in space projects, could be a great partner in her mission to promote Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education in the region, she says.

I want to work with [the UAE] to build some kind of an academy where we teach students, newly graduates or not yet, on how gain these skill sets by hand, she says.

I want to provide that same opportunity I had to students in high school or university and equip them with the resources.

When companies abroad see that there are students who are trained by American professionals, they are going to come and invest in these students, she adds.

Ultimately, my drive is to give all these students with opportunities they might not get somewhere else.

Technicians work at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in Dubai. MBRSC / AFP

An employee works at the control room of the Mars Mission at MBRSC. AFP

Employees work at the control room of the Mars Mission at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre. AFP

Engineers observe a KhalifaSat model at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre. AFP

An engineer walks toward a KhalifaSat model. AFP

Scientists work at a laboratory in the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre. AFP

Engineers observe a KhalifaSat model. AFP

Engineers walk the corridors of Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre. AFP

The entrance of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai. AFP

The entrance of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai. AFP

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Arabian Stargazer: Meet Diana Alsindy, the woman who's teaching young people about science and space, in Arabic - The National