Industry Experience
Blue Origin
Modeling and Simulation Engineer I, II
September 2021 – Present
Kent, WA
I am currently a modeling and simulation engineer in the Flight Sciences division of Space Systems Development. I lead a small team responsible for developing a trajectory simulation of the New Glenn fairing after jettison.
New Graduate Rotation Engineer
August 2020 – August 2021
Kent, WA
I participated in the New Graduate Rotation Program during my first year at Blue Origin. The program consisted of three rotation projects, approximately 4 months each. My first project was requirements verification with the New Glenn ground autonomy team. I learned about software verification and was exposed to DOORS Next Generation. My second project was lunar regolith risk assessments with Advanced Development Programs, where I was able to apply and extend my thesis work. My third project was with the Blue Engines control systems and analysis group. I used acceptance test data for BE4 hydraulic servovalves to tune models of those valves in the simulation.
Academic Experience
University of Maryland
Lecturer
Summer 2023
College Park, MD
ENAE202/ENME202 Fundamentals of Computing lecturer. I taught an introductory course on programming to rising sophomores. Topics include logic branching and loops, functions, file handling, arrays, and data structures. The course introduces students to both MATLAB and C++.
Undergraduate Teaching Fellow
Spring 2012 and 2013
College Park, MD
ENAE324 Aerospace Structures teaching fellow. I reviewed course material and
introduce structural analysis tools to a class of 100 sophomore and junior
aerospace engineering students. I also gave special topics lectures and graded exams.
Georgia Institute of Technology
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Fall 2019 – Spring 2020
Atlanta, GA
I was a graduate teaching assistant (GTA) for the Fall 2019 Statics class and Spring 2020 finite element modeling class. Each class had approximately 40 undergraduate students. My responsibilities were to grade homework assignments, grade exams, and hold weekly office hours. I also gave lectures on how to use modern finite element software (Abaqus). The Spring 2020 class coincided with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and I responded by quickly transitioning to online-only grading and office hours.
Graduate Research Assistant
Fall 2013 – Spring 2019
Atlanta, GA
I began my academic career as a graduate research assistant (GRA) in the aerospace engineering department. I executed on grants from AFRL and NASA, and assisted PIs in writing grant proposals. These projects addressed multiple challenges in the field of planetary entry, descent, and landing.
Volunteer Experience
The South African Lacrosse Project
Co-Founder
March 2007 – January 2018
Vaalwater, Limpopo Province, South Africa
My brother and I founded a non-profit supporting children in South Africa affected by HIV. We brought student athletes and professionals to teach an annual lacrosse camp for dozens of kids in Vaalwater, Limpopo Province. The project also supported education in Vaalwater by providing scholarships, establishing a library for books and toys, and sending after-school tutors for English and math. As a result, we were a positive influence for hundreds of kids, six of whom graduated from college with two receiving graduate degrees.
Education
PhD in Aerospace Engineering
December 2021
Atlanta, GA
Thesis Project: A Micromechanically-Informed Model of Thermal Spallation with Application to Propulsive Landing
Advisor: Julian Rimoli
Additional Research Projects: LEO CubeSat Aerodynamics, Supersonic Parachute Dynamics, Trajectory Design for Supersonic Retropropulsion at Mars
Organizations: Yellow Jacket Fencing Club, PhD2Consulting Club
GPA: 3.50
Course Highlights: Micromechanics of Materials; Principles of Management for Engineers; Computational Fluid Dynamics
Transcript
MS in Aerospace Engineering
May 2015
Atlanta, GA
Masters Project: Analytic Aerodynamic and Solar Radiation Pressure Modeling of Resident Space Objects
Advisor: Robert Braun
GPA: 3.39
Course Highlights: Planetary Entry, Descent and Landing; Fundamentals of Solid Mechanics; Advanced Design Methods I; Optimization for the Design of Engineering Systems
Transcript
BS with Honors in Aerospace Engineering
May 2013
College Park, MD
Honors Project: Active Camber Control via Pneumatic Artificial Muscles
Advisor: Norman Wereley
Additional Research Projects: Supersonic Thin-Film Cooling, Model-Based Tracking of Bat Wings, Simulation of Crowd Behavior
Organizations: Sigma Gamma Tau (treasurer, then president), AIAA (class liaison), SGA Governance Board, University Study Judiciary, Tau Beta Pi, Omicron Delta Kappa
GPA: 3.69
Course Highlights: Satellite Design; Introduction to Composites; Space Flight Dynamics; Aerospace Structures; General Physics: Mechanics and Particle Dynamics
Transcript
Internships
NASA Johnson Space Center
Summer 2018
Houston, TX
I developed a Python package for computationally modeling polycrystalline
microstructures. I also created a CFD simulation of rocket exhaust impinging
on the Martian surface.
Summer 2017
Houston, TX
I developed a model of the damage to a landing site caused by retrorocket
exhaust plume impingement. The exhaust from a large Mars lander may have
enough energy to induce spallation/erosion of the surface at the landing site.
This phenomenon is hazardous because the landing site may be unstable for
the lander. My model uses the characteristics of the lander and the material
properties of the landing site to predict the amount of spallation that will occur.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Summer 2016
Pasadena, CA
I examined several entry and descent guidance strategies for high ballistic
coefficient Mars landers. Specifically, these landers had a low L/D during
entry and using supersonic retropropulsion during descent. A version of the
Apollo final-phase guidance algorithm was implemented to determine whether
the reference trajectory should be set for nominal, low, or high atmospheric
density.
NASA Ames Research Center
Summer 2015
Mountain View, CA
I assisted the Planetary Defense Integrated Product Team by performing and
analyzing a series of finite element simulations to quantify the significance
of surface features and material composition on the atmospheric breakup of
meteors.
Northrop Grumman
Summer 2014
Redondo Beach, CA
I started the process of verifying that the structure of the spacecraft segment
of the James Webb Space Telescope will meet NGC’s and NASA’s standards.
This verification involved drawing inspections, review of structural analyses,
and reading test plans then linking these artifacts back to the subsystem
specification. By verifying that the structure of the spacecraft complies with its
requirements, the team was one step closer to assembling this component of
the telescope.
AAI Corporation
Summer 2013
Hunt Valley, MD
I assisted a systems engineering team with the maintenance and development
of system requirements and use cases. My work primarily focused on the
performance specifications of the Universal Ground Control Station, which
enables command and control of unmanned aircraft.
Space Telescope Science Institute
At STScI I worked on improving the data quality for two of the spectrographic
instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope. These instruments are named
the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Cosmic Origins
Spectrograph (COS). Both instruments observed wavelengths in the near-ultraviolet (NUV) range and needed improvements concerning vignetting
patterns on the detector.
Summer 2012
Baltimore, MD
The brightness of the light incidence on the edge of the COS NUV decreases
by as much as 30%, however this varies from observation to observation. I
investigated possible causes and correlating factors to predict, and correct for,
this vignetting feature. With limited data, I created a model of this feature that
is accurate to within a few percent, however adjusting the path the light travels
though might remove the feature all together.
Summer 2010
Baltimore, MD
The vignetting pattern in the STIS NUV depends on the chosen grating. I
analyzed all of the STIS NUV observations and characterized the pattern
based on each grating and created a table of the pixels within the vignetting
pattern to be ignored during image processing.
Maryland Science Center
Summer 2010
Baltimore, MD
I informed visitors about exhibits, provide them with supplementary
demonstrations, and stimulated critical thinking/analysis amongst youth and
adult visitors.
Publications
Doctoral Thesis and Masters Project
Hart, K.A., “A Micromechanically-Informed Model of Thermal Spallation with Application to Propulsive Landing,” Ph.D. thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia, Dec. 2021.
Hart, K.A., “Analytic Aerodynamic and Solar Radiation Pressure
Modeling of Resident Space Objects,” M.S. project report, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia, May 2015.
Journal Articles
Hart, K.A. and Rimoli, J.J., “A Computational Model for the Thermal Spallation of Crystalline Rocks,”
Journal of Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, vol. 56, pp. 8235-8254, 2023.
Hart, K.A. and Rimoli, J.J., “MicroStructPy: A statistical microstructure mesh generator in Python,” SoftwareX, vol. 12, p. 100 595, 2020.
Hart, K.A. and Rimoli, J.J., “Generation of statistically representative microstructures with direct grain
geometry control,” Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering,
vol. 370, 2020.
Groesbeck, D.S., Hart, K.A., and Gunter, B.C., “Simulated formation flight of
nanosatellites using differential drag with high-fidelity rarefied aerodynamics,” Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, vol. 42, no. 5, pp. 1175–1184, 2019.
Hart, K.A., Simonis, K.R., Steinfeldt B.A., and Braun, R.D., “Analytic free-molecular aerodynamics for rapid propagation of resident space objects,” Journal
of Spacecraft and Rockets, vol. 55, no. 1, pp. 27–36, 2017.
Conference Papers
Groesbeck, D.S., Gunter, B.C., and Hart, K.A., “Simulated formation control maneuvers for the RANGE CubeSat mission,” in AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist
Conference, Stevenson, WA, 2017.
Hart, K.A., Gunter, B.C., and Braun, R.D., “Aerodynamics of the RANGE nanosatellites from direct flowfield simulation,” in AIAA SPACE 2016, Long Beach, CA,
2016.
Hart, K.A., Steinfeldt, B.A., and Braun, R.D., “Formulation and applications of
a probabilistic Pareto chart,” in 56th AIAA/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural
Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Kissimmee, FL, 2015.
Hart, K.A., Simonis, K.R., Steinfeldt B.A., and Braun, R.D., “Analytical aerodynamic force and moment coefficients of axisymmetric objects in rarefied flow,” in
AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference, Kissimmee, FL, 2015.
Hart, K.A., Simonis, K.R., Dutta, S., Steinfeldt B.A., and Braun, R.D., “Analytically-derived aerodynamic force and moment coefficients of resident space objects
in free-molecular flow,” in AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference, National Harbor, MD, 2014
Hart, K.A., and Wereley, N.M., “Active camber control via pneumatic artificial muscles,” in AIAA Region I Student Conference, Laurel, MD, 2013.
Technical Reports
Braun, R.D., Russell, R.P., Vittaldev, V., Hart, K.A., “Space Catalog Uncertainty Modeling Using High
Fidelity Dynamics, Multi-complex Step Derivatives and GPUs,” Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland
AFB, NM, 2016, pp. 1–19. AFRL-RV-PS-TR-2016-1169.
Hart, K.A and Bostroem, K. A., “Characterization of the STIS NUV MAMA vignetting by optical element,” Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD,
Tech. Rep. TIR 2014-01, 2014, pp. 1–19.
Posters and Presentations
Prabhu, D., Saunders, D., Stern, E., Chen, Y-K., Allen, G., Agrawal, P., Jaffe, R., White, S., Tauber, M.,
Bauschlicher, C., Brandis, A., Carlozzi, A., Hart, K., “Meteor Entry & Breakup Based on Evolution of
NASA’s Entry Capsule Design Tools,” 1st International Workshop on PHA Characterization, Atmospheric
Entry and Risk Assessment, Mountain View, CA, July 2015.
Agrawal, P., Prabhu, D., Carlozzi, A., Hart, K., Bryson, K., Sears, D., “Modeling of Fragmentation of
Asteroids,” 1st International Workshop on PHA Characterization, Atmospheric Entry and Risk
Assessment, Mountain View, CA, July 2015.
Hart, K.A., Bostroem, K.A., Ely, J., “Hubble Space Telescope Data Quality Improvements for Near-
Ultraviolet Instruments,” AIAA Region I Young Professionals, Students, and Educators Conference,
Laurel, MD, 2011.
Ely, J., Massa, D., Wolfe, M., Proffitt, C., Oliveira, C., Aloisi, A., York, B., Osten, R., Sahnow, D., Dixon,
V., Ake, T., Zheng, W., Bostroem, K., Niemi, S., Hart, K., “Updated Status and Performance of the
Cosmic Origins Spectrograph,” AAS Meeting #218, Boston, MA, May 2011. #311.01.
Honors and Awards
Industry
– Aviation Week Twenty20s
Academic
– Georgia Tech Thank a Teacher Program Award
– Sigma Gamma Tau Mid-Atlantic Regional Award
– Sigma Gamma Tau Outstanding Achievement Award
– Omicron Delta Kappa Top Ten Freshmen
– Omicron Delta Kappa
– Tau Beta Pi
– Sigma Gamma Tau
– College Park Scholars
– Boeing Scholar
Volunteering
– Maryland Governor’s Volunteer Service Certificate
– Baltimore County’s Martin Luther King Content of Character Award
My Timeline
December 2021
Ph.D. from Georgia Tech
Received a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology
August 2020
Blue Origin
Began working at Blue Origin
May 2015
M.S. from Georgia Tech
Received an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology
November 2013
Aviation Week Twenty20s
Received the Aviation Week Twenty20s award, for non-profit and research contributions
May 2013
B.S. from University of Maryland
Received a B.S. with Honors in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland
March 2007
Co-Founded The South African Lacrosse Project
Began the lacrosse project to provide support for children in Vaalwater affected by HIV/AIDS