John Posada

Background

About John Posada

I'm John! I'm a 4th year aerospace engineering student at MIT focused on space systems and controls engineering, with big interest in analysis and design of space missions and satellite applications for research and national security. I've worked on many things throughout my four years: rocket engines, controls, satellites, and ISRU systems. A few highlights are: • I led the liquid propulsion subteam on the MIT Rocket Team for a year and a half - in that time, we rebuilt, integrated, and completed a cold flow testing campaign for our first engine, Helios. We also finished design and manufacturing on our second engine, Romulus, which includes regenerative cooling and a pintle injector (that I designed!). A semester later, we're about to hot fire Helios and continue onto integration and testing of Romulus. • I designed the water acquisition system on BART & MARGE, a fully integrated, mobile, scalable design for a system that can reliably and autonomously produce >50 tons of methalox bipropellant on Mars. I also helped design the ice scouting, gas capture, and compression systems. We won first place at the NASA RASC-AL 2022 competition, presented at the ASCEND 2022 conference, and are working on a journal publication. • I'm researching autonomy algorithms like SLAM, A*, and RRT for small low-power robotics, continuing work done in my research group. I was able to implement control systems on our robotic platforms and get a car moving around on its own and flying a blimp around a lecture hall! A little more about me: I love 3D modeling, rigging, and animation; I've got 3 cats back home, and I love languages - I'm currently a 3rd year student of the Russian language!