Brian Patrick went to the University of Georgia as an undergrad. Although he said he’s always had a deep passion for space and aerospace engineering, he decided to get his B.S. in mechanical engineering, thinking it would give him a broad background. Fresh out of U. Georgia, Patrick got a job as a mechanical design engineer at Jordan and Skala in Dallas, Texas, primarily designing HVAC and mechanical systems for residential and commercial projects.
That first job helped him build valuable business and professional skills while he weighed whether this was what he wanted to do for a lifetime career. Ultimately, he decided he’d be better suited to a more technical field of work. However, he quickly realized the companies he was interested in working for required a graduate level degree just to get a foot in the door.
Read more about how Brian Patrick chose to study at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, how his master’s degree morphed over time, and what he’s doing now.
How did you choose Illinois?
I had a great professor at the University of Georgia who advised me about graduate school, and he told me to focus on schools with research that I was interested in rather than the prestige of the name. I found many professors in both the fluids/aerodynamics and space systems fields at Illinois who I was interested in working with as well as the quality of the program.
You started out with a non-thesis option but that changed. What happened?
I was unable to find a professor who had space in their lab to advise my thesis. I decided to begin the program and try to impress a professor through coursework, projects, and constant communication—showing them I was capable and passionate about research and the work they were doing.
During my first semester at UIUC, I took Robyn Woolland’s course in orbital mechanics and absolutely fell in love with the topic and the work. It was a great blend of fascinating space knowledge, physics, math, and software. I sat in the front row in class and actively participated in discussions about the material we were studying as well as extrapolating it to areas that it can be applied to in the real world.
After finishing the course, I had a meeting with Robyn to discuss research opportunities with her and the lab group she runs called Space Situational Awareness and Space Sustainability at Illinois. She decided to give me an opportunity to begin an independent study with her, stating that I might have the opportunity to become a full member of her lab and a thesis master’s student under her advisement depending on my performance on the project.
Describe the research project.
The project was in collaboration with The Aerospace Corporation. It involved researching low-thrust trajectory optimization techniques and possibilities for minimum-fuel transfers to the Lunar Gateway – the new space station that will soon orbit the moon in 2024. Along with my colleagues, Alex Pascarella and Pallavi Ravada, we studied how multibody dynamical systems could be leveraged to design extremely fuel efficient low-thrust transfers utilizing ballistic manifold trajectories. Applying knowledge learned in Robyn’s spacecraft trajectory optimization course, as well as techniques learned through her expertise in the field, we applied principles of optimal control theory and indirect methods of optimization to compute minimum-fuel trajectories to the Lunar Gateway for varying spacecraft/satellite sizes.
The project consisted of biweekly meetings with our point of contact and main collaborator Travis Swenson, the head of the Trajectory Design and Optimization Department at The Aerospace Corporation. Twice a month, we prepared a presentation with our current findings, progress, and difficulties to discuss what was working well and areas that we wanted to explore further. The project culminated in a final presentation to over 20 members of the department through a virtual presentation/seminar. Additionally, we supplied The Aerospace Corporation with the software platform developed throughout the research project.
This platform is called “Astromancer” and was primarily developed by Ph.D. candidate Alex Pascarella, along with my assistance for debugging, minor adaptations/implementations, and brainstorming/development discussions for how to improve the platform.
What’s something you’re particularly proud of?
I presented a paper at the American Astronautical Society Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference in February 2023. This was the first time I attended a conference of this type and size. I was honored to present my paper, “Hybrid Optimization of High-Fidelity Low-Thrust Transfers to the Lunar Gateway,” which was also the main focus of my master’s thesis. Although I was nervous to present such a technically complex topic to a room full of experts in the field, it was an incredible experience to test my ability to discuss my work in a formal setting and answer questions related to my work.
How did you get the job at The Aerospace Corporation?
During our project with The Aerospace Corporation, I was tasked with putting together many of our biweekly presentations and leading much of the discussion about our work and findings. This gave me a wonderful opportunity to showcase my abilities on both the technical side of the work as well as the business and presentation end. It is very important in a field where complex work is presented to audiences of varying knowledge of the topic to be able to deliver pertinent information clearly and with the target audience in mind. These meetings allowed me to display my communication skills and design/presentation capabilities to Travis.
When the project ended, Travis knew I was about to graduate and asked me to interview with him and the company. A few weeks later, I flew to Colorado Springs for a full day of interviewing. Along with the questions which are typical for an interview, I was asked to prepare an hour-long presentation to showcase the individual work that I had done on the project and allow them to determine my strengths and weaknesses. Thankfully, following the interview, I was offered a full-time position and started working there this summer.
Where is the company located?
The company is headquartered out of El Segundo, California. However, I’m working at the Colorado Springs office just next to the airport.
What will you be doing in your new job?
My job will primarily consist of trajectory optimization for Earth-bound satellites and spacecraft. I will be designing and analyzing trajectories for various missions to determine optimal trajectories that satisfy the mission requirements and objectives.
Do you have other career goals?
Over the course of the next five to 10 years, I aim to learn everything that I can about the GNC industry and trajectory optimization methods. I hope to become an expert in the field and incorporate my knowledge and skills for missions to the moon, Mars, and beyond.
There are incredibly exciting new missions from organizations like NASA and the European Space Agency, as well as private companies such as Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, and others. I hope to become a widely recognized individual in the field of trajectory optimization and mission design and have the opportunity to work on future space missions.
What’s on your bucket list of must-dos for the next five years?
One thing that I would love to do is to watch a SpaceX launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral and see the rocket boosters fall back to the Earth and land on the landing pads successfully. I think that would be a true marvel to witness.