March 25-29, 2013
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA 91125

History

First Caltech Space Challenge: September 12-16, 2011 (link)

Student Leads/Founders

Prakhar Mehrotra

Prakhar Mehrotra is currently a Ph.D. student in Aeronautics at the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories at the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT). His research is focused on understanding combustion and mixing in high-speed (supersonic) flows. He completed his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Trichy, India in 2007. He completed his Masters in Aeronautics in 2008 from Caltech. He was selected for "Thales Academia Fellowship" by the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs to pursue a specialty Masters in Fluid Mechanics at Ecole Polytechnique, Paris. After completion of his Ph.D., Prakhar plans to pursue systems engineering in the space exploration industry. Eventually, Prakhar hopes to venture into strategy and business development functions of aerospace industry.

Jonathan Mihaly

Jonathan (Jon) Mihaly is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Aeronautics at the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories at the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT). His research is focused on the development and implementation of high-speed optical diagnostics to characterize hypervelocity impact damage mechanics and phenomena. Jon received his BS in Aerospace Engineering from Syracuse University in 2007 as a graduate of the Honors Program. Jon received his MS in Aeronautics from Caltech in 2008. Upon completing his Ph.D., Jon plans to pursue a career in the human spaceflight industry.

Mentors

Caltech Faculty Mentor: Paul Dimotakis

JPL Mentors: Donald Yeomans and John D. Baker

Teams (link)

Voyager (winner)

Explorer