Christopher Cotner Email & Phone Number

United States

United States

Everett, Washington, Us

Everett, Washington, Us

Mechanical Engineer at Helion Energy, working on pulsed power electrical systems for present and future fusion reactors and experimental testbeds.

Hawthorne, California, Us

As a mechanical engineer on the SpaceX Laser Communications team, I worked on advanced electro-optical communications systems for applications in low earth orbit and beyond. I owned a high-performance electromagnetic actuator for fine pointing and jitter rejection, responsible for all aspects of production, sustaining engineering, and product redesign and upgrades over its life.

Hawthorne, California, Us

After my rotation assignment, I returned to the life support group as a component responsible engineer for several air-moving fans in both life support and thermal control subsystems. I completed the initial design through CDR of a new family of high-efficiency electric turbofans for the Dragon crew and cargo spacecraft. I also performed and implemented manufacturing-improvement redesigns on portions of the thermal control system of Dragon.

Hawthorne, California, Us

Completed a rotation assignment for 1.5 years where I performed extensive mechanical design, analysis, test, and integration work with the Dragon spacecraft parachutes and pyrotechnics team. This included the development and qualification of pyrotechnic actuators and high-strength fasteners for parachute deployment and release as well as spacecraft separation.

Hawthorne, California, Us

Project lead engineer (team of three) for a subsystem within the life support ensemble on Dragon 2 crew spacecraft. This project involved a clean-slate design of the entire subsystem, from overall system system performance requirements and power/mass allocations to detailed analytical modeling of individual components within the system.

Hawthorne, California, Us

As an introductory assignment, I worked as a development-support manufacturing engineer on a series of valve development projects. My role included manufacturing and modifying prototype valves and components on extremely short notice, running extensive characterization tests on prototype valves with the design team, and making design improvements for improved performance and in response to test anomalies. My main produce was a high-pressure gaseous oxygen regulator for the Crew Dragon spacecraft.

I provide engineering design and manufacturing consulting services. My work has ranged from production line optimization to concept-level space mission design and propulsion system analysis. Clients to date: Beall Trailers, Space Energetics, MoonBaseBuilders

Designing and fabricating experimental electronics payloads for small sounding rockets, to accurately measure temperature profiles to 25,000' MSL and and g-envelopes for the rockets used in the Experimental Engineering course at HMC. Job includes sensor selection, circuit design, PCB/vehicle fabrication, calibration, conditioning, flight operations/data analysis, and summarizing for publication.

I assist students work through the lab curriculum in HMC's sophomore rocketry-based experimental engineering class. The class is a mix of electronics design and experimental design; students do a number of labs associated with combining rocket-related physics and microcontroller-sensor-filter interfaces (using NI DAQ units, accelerometers, thermocouples, pressure sensors, rate gyros, etc.). In the final project, I assist students with modifications to their rocket kit (often through CNC training), experimental design, and rocket safety procedures and launching.http://www.eng.hmc.edu/NewE80/

Hired to set up CNC equipment for a Fabrication Laboratory Re-Hired to manage CNC assets in the student shop; personally developed/am implementing training programs

Hired for Summer 2011 to re-design student machine shops to accomodate CNC. Assembled and installed ShopBot PRS Alpha, Roland rapid-prototyping mill and vinyl cutter, and Epilog Laser. I wrote training tutorials and procedures for these machines, and have on multiple occasions taught mini-courses on their operation. I have also assisted in the installation and training regimen for a ProtoTRAK CNC lathe and mill which we installed in October; I have led training courses in those machines as well.

Senior Thesis in Engineering Design. Joint Project with Graham Orr to develop a solid-fuel sounding rocket capable of sustained hypersonic flight in the low atmosphere. Conducted conceptual design, design-for-manufacturing, elementary CFD and FEM work, and hands-on fabrication of subscale Carbon-Fiber motor case tubing and machining closures.

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Engineering/Physics

Aerospace, Aeronautical And Astronautical Engineering