Chad Truitt Email and Phone Number

Student researcher providing engineering, geophysical, and machining capabilities for the development of multiple ongoing projects, including: the High Velocity Ground Penetrator for geologic sampling; the High Power Helicon Thruster experiment; Dust Injected Pulsed Plasma Thruster; Pulsed Plasma Thruster alternate fuels research. Duties include SolidWorks design and mechanical engineering, machining of penetrator and thruster components, operation and maintenance of high-vacuum chambers, data acquisition and testing, and designing instrumentation for experiments. Teaching Assistant for ESS 472/575: Rockets & Instrumentation; responsible for lectures covering the basic principles of rocketry, lab supervision and fabrication techniques, and range safety/ground operations during launches held in eastern Washington, California, and Black Rock, Nevada.

Summer Internship Program participant invited to work under the mentorship of Dr. Louis Giersch (352B), assisting in the characterization of the impact environment at Utah Training and Test Range for a possible Mars Sample Return Mission. Responsible for completing the mechanical design of test articles for the Passive Drop Tests, assembly of the penetrometers and integration of the shock sensor, impact documentation and analysis, and data retrieval/reduction for use in furthering impact modeling work.