About Me

Welcome!

My name is Athul and I am currently a Quality Assurance Engineer, R&D at LeoLabs in Menlo Park, CA. Prior to that I worked as a Research Scientist at Pioneer Astronautics in Lakewood, CO. I hold a Ph.D. in Astrodynamics and Space Applications with a minor in Aerospace Systems from Purdue Unversity. Prior to that, I attended the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras for my undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering where I graduated with a silver medal in 2016. I am a citizen of India.

I am interested in advanced mission concepts and technology development for planetary exploration. During my Ph.D work at the Advanced Astrodynamics Concepts lab at Purdue, primary research focus was on rapid mission design and analysis of aerocapture concepts. I have expertise in the general areas of space mission architecture and mission formulation, systems engineering, Entry Descent and Landing (EDL) systems, and design of planetary probes. Although my doctoral research dealt with aerocapture, I have worked on other technologies such as robotic surface mobility systems, sample return mission architectures, and ice giant mission concept studies. I also have expertise in mechanical design and fabrication of test equipment, scientific programming, data analysis and technical writing. You can learn more about me by visiting my LinkedIn and Google Scholar pages. You can read more about my research in Research and Publications/CV tabs!

Pawnee Peak summit (12,943 ft), Indian Peaks Wilderness, Colorado (October 2021).