As a Summer Researcher at MITLL, I led the feasibility study of a proposed space launch vehicle tasked with accelerating small spacecraft from rest to 300 m/s. I performed high-level trade studies and modeling/simulation to determine the system’s viability for orbital insertion and enhancing rapid-response mission profiles.
In my role, I was responsible for conducting FEA simulations to evaluate the performance of the cyrogenic instruments. My models primarily consisted of thermal analsyses using ANSYS and SolidWorks simulation tools. At the end of the project I presented my research to Caltech faculty and JPL research scientists at the Caltech research sympossium.