Naylah Sinclair Canty

Naylah Canty began her aerospace engineering career at NASA’s Space Mission Analysis Branch (SMAB) in 2023 after completing her undergraduate education at MIT. 

She is a member of the Science Technology Utilization & Integration (STU&I) and Capabilities Integration (CI) teams. Within the STU&I, she works with Tim Lewis to coordinate science utilization needs across strategy & architecture offices, mission directorates, and Moon-to-Mars programs. This role also includes authoring and maintaining key documents describing objectives of the Artemis architecture. As a member of CI, she works with Matt Simon to verify and communicate technology needs from mission definition through program implementation. 

Previously, she has served as a research assistant for electrospray thruster propellant testing in MIT’s Space Propulsion Lab (SPL) and space technology road-mapping & campaign analysis in MIT’s Exploration Systems Laboratory (ESL). Through summer internships, she investigated safety protocol adherence and the Moon-to-Mars mission trade-space in the civilian aerospace sector first with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of Safety and Hazardous Materials and secondly within NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy (OTPS). Her multifaceted work at OTPS at NASA Headquarters inspired her interest in space-based solar power, a topic which she independently researches in preparation for submitting a technology development proposal in late 2024. 

Education/Professional Experience

• B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• B.S. in Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Publications

• Canty, NS, “Orbital Settlement Design: Reformulating Recommendations for Planned Living Space within a Self-Sufficient Habitat,” MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning Undergraduate Theses, Jun 2023.