Rockets, science, faith

Aerospace engineering students from Ateneo de Davao University (AdDU) was the first Philippine team to launch a rocket at Spaceport America Cup in New Mexico last July. More than 6,000 rocketeers in 152 teams from 32 countries launched solid, liquid, hybrid rockets to reach enormous heights in the world’s biggest intercollegiate rocketry fest.

Under the leadership of chair Rogel Mari Sese, 16 students plus their advisers labored for a year to create prototypes to clear flight tests for the Cup. The 2.95-meter hybrid rocket Sibol carried a payload of 4 kilograms, reached the mandated height of 3.048 meters (10,000 feet), and safely descended to earth. “This is AdDU’s humble contribution to the development of space technology … crucial in our pursuit of sustainable development goals,” president Fr. Karel San Juan, S. J., says. Rockets bring satellites into space to monitor agriculture, weather, oceans, etc.

READ: Ateneo de Davao team makes successful rocket launch in US Spaceport Cup

That AdDU is the first in the country to offer aerospace engineering is testament to the tenacity and foresight of physicist Fr. Daniel McNamara, S.J., who as dean invited Sese to spearhead the department in 2018. The 85-year-old indefatigable Fr. Dan credited Sese, a space enthusiast who participated in UN space conventions, for giving a talk to high school students upon the invitation of then AdDU president Fr. Joel Tabora, S. J.

Sese initially guided students to build small water rockets, with water pumped under pressure as propellant, to overwhelming positive response.

“Solid rockets are huge firecrackers, that’s what they are,” says Fr. Dan. “You have to fire close to the equator, as this requires less energy, with the extra boost from the earth’s spin.”

The US launches rockets from Florida, France from French Guineas, Russia from Kazakhstan. Davao in the southeastern Philippines is ideal, and with AdDU’s strength in engineering, where graduates do well in exams, Fr. Dan knew that aerospace engineering would be viable.

Half a century ago, as an astrogeophysics major from the University of Colorado, the young Dan was sent to the Philippines to work in the Manila Observatory, which he continues to this day. Fr. Dan plays a seminal role in Ateneo de Manila University physics and looks forward to his forthcoming class on “Air and Water in the Atmosphere” for environmental science.

What I love most about Fr. Dan is his quiet kindness. He did the homily at my wedding. As co-adviser for my master’s thesis in psychology on consciousness, he patiently discussed quantum mechanics from the perspective of David Bohm and John Barrow.

One time, when I barged into his office, I was surprised to see Aida, the secretary, sitting in the air-conditioned room. She pointed to the adjacent room, saying, “I was hot, so Fr. Dan changed places with me.” Sure enough, Fr. Dan was coolly perched on her seat, and we had a lively chat despite the heat.

Another time, a friend whose mother was killed told me over the phone that she had no more reason to live. I pleaded for her to talk to Fr. Dan. “I live far and it’s hard to get to my place,” she said—this was in the early 90s, before Waze. When I frantically called Fr. Dan, he immediately went to her, via jeep, tricycle, foot. She is alive today.

Fr. Dan embraces faith and science: “The Creator of everything is one reality, and we attempt to understand this, whether through science, religion, even in psychology where in studying the self we also run into the Creator.”

In college, Fr. Dan saw theoretical physicists who fervently scribbled equations and realized that “it was their religion. That was how they found meaning.”

For young people today who feel anxious and depressed, he advises, “Go beyond the self. Thinking only about what I want and how to get it is a dead end. Do not give up the fight. Use your God-given talents for the bigger good.”

Queena N. Lee-Chua is with the board of directors of Ateneo’s Family Business Center. Get her book “All in the Family Business” at Lazada or Shopee, or the ebook at Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks. Contact the author at [email protected].