Dan Mueller Email & Phone Number

Long Beach, Ca, Us

AI powered aerospace hardware development.

Long Beach, Ca, Us

Manage vehicle mechanisms and unpressurized structures team for Terran R.

Long Beach, Ca, Us

Manager of upper stage structures and mechanisms. Responsible for interstage, gridfin, stage 2 and payloads.

Long Beach, Ca, Us

Design criteria engineer responsible for reusability, pressurized structures, and aft end.

Gauting, Bavaria, De

Manage team to develop battery module thermal runaway safety concepts. Develop and release thermal runaway propagation barrier and venting design solutions in NX 12 and Teamcenter. Source technologies from suppliers. Coordinate test execution with battery abuse test labs and production. Implement building-block test campaign and release test plans for thermal runaway testing. Lead technical discussions with EASA/FAA and EUROCAE on thermal runaway safety regulations.-Developed within mass-target thermal runaway designs to stop propagation between high-energy-density lithium-ion pouch cells.-Reduced test setup time from two weeks to two days, using an innovative, low-cost easy-to-setup module simulator.-Doubled available workforce of test campaign by onboarding a team of local suppliers who can build-test-iterate independently.

Gauting, Bavaria, De

Manage team to design in NX 10, release in Teamcenter, and deliver flight hardware for the battery module and energy management system. Develop test and analysis verification strategy, release test plans, and deliver completed compliance matrix. Resolve maintenance issues.-Delivered ahead of schedule a flight set plus spares of the battery module, including all required compliance documentation.-Enabled first flight by executing a critical-path redesign of the high voltage distribution unit after performing a pre-flight review.

Gauting, Bavaria, De

Performed detailed design activities for battery module sealing, fastening, bonding/grounding, and composite hardware. Coordinated with suppliers to define and deliver composite lids and casings. Defined sealing and strength design criteria for module thermal runaway and nominal operating conditions.-Prevented rejection of flight set of casings after low ultimate test result by refining pressure load requirements.-Delivered casings and lids on-time for Lilium production by releasing standard disposition criteria for composite hardware.

Gauting, Bavaria, De

Performed structural analysis and design architecture trade studies for fuselage primary structure, using hand calcs, Hyperworks, and NX 12. Delivered weekly architecture mass reports and presented proposals to senior leadership. Performed structural optimization using Optistruct and hand calcs to assess design concepts. Quantified mass growth uncertainty factors for preliminary designs.-Successfully negotiated and met fuselage mass targets by optimizing framing layout and battery mounting architecture.-Obtained unanimous acceptance to bolt primary structure by leading a multifunctional group to assess the decision to fasten or bond.

Hawthorne, California, Us

Managed team for establishing Falcon vehicle design criteria and back-checking flight hardware, including reusability. Led vehicle structural analysis methods division. Developed and maintained Falcon Block 5 master design criteria. Coordinated design reviews and signed for preflight milestone closure. Revised pre/flight hardware capability process. Created hand-calc-based process to automate flight-specific pressurized structure capabilities. Served as subject matter expert on reusability, composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs), and composite structures. Overhauled, authored, and maintained the company design guide.-Enabled successful Falcon Heavy demo, Arabsat 6a, and STP-2 missions by verifying critical first flight and reuse design criteria.-Supported the successful Falcon Heavy STP-2 mission by performing structural reuse assessment of flight-proven side boosters.-Enabled Falcon fracture and fatigue-based life tracking by creating MATLAB tool to assess design and mission-specific profiles.-Obtained NASA Crew approval to fly Dragon interior structures by implementing a composite defect fracture analysis approach.

Hawthorne, California, Us

Delivered and generated certification data packages, presentations, and analyses for government customers (USAF, NASA) of Falcon COPVs, fairing, and payload attach fitting. Authored content for the latest released versions of AIAA-S-080A/081B and participated in CMH-17 Spacecraft Working Group. Performed structural analysis using Femap/NX Nastran, Ansys, and Hypersizer for Falcon and Dragon hardware (TEA-TEB canister, Fuel Diffuser, Small COPVs).-Mitigated non-flyable Falcon vehicle risk of core venting failure by developing a sandwich structure acceptance test method.-Enabled certification of Falcon and Dragon COPVs by creating tailored AIAA-S-081 acceptance and qualification approaches.-Supported Falcon return to flight by authoring F9-29 COPV delta-qualification FAA report.

Arlington, Va, Us

Performed hand calc and finite element analysis (FEA) structural sizing and signed drawings for ALASA launch vehicle and Echo Voyager submersible programs. Performed detailed margin assessments for drawing release of Echo Voyager composite and metallic structures. Dispositioned non-conformances of Echo Voyager production hardware. Generated composite material allowables for the Echo Voyager program. Designed and analyzed structural bonds and composite laminates for ALASA composite pressure vessels. -Enabled Echo Voyager on-time hardware delivery by delivering margin reporting of all composite skin-stiffened primary structures.-Reduced ALASA composite pressure vessel burst prediction uncertainty by 35% using progressive failure analysis in Abaqus.

Wrote LabVIEW data acquisition software to conduct research projects directed by Professor Dan McCammon. Assisted hardware and software development for the sounding rocket launched X-Ray Quantum Calorimeter.-Contributed to understanding the position sensitivity of TES X-ray detectors by designing and delivering a motor-driven mechanism to move an X-Ray source within an adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator (ADR).

Arlington, Va, Us

Researched FEA modeling techniques of bolted joints for Boeing Commercial Aircraft. Matured Visual Basic tool to create and execute bolted joint models.-Contributed to bolted joint tool on-time rollout by establishing correct techniques of multibody contact in Patran/MSC.Nastran.

Led the design and build of Singularity, a fully autonomous robotic vehicle that incorporates an omnidirectional 'crab-drive' drive train as well as an omnidirectional sensing suite. Obtained and managed funding.-Delivered Singularity vehicle which competed in the IGVC 2011 and 2012 and placed in the finals in the design competition.

Arlington, Va, Us

Analyzed Space Launch System (SLS) aluminum-lithium cryotank friction-stir weld-induced distortions on the Vertical Weld Tool using Patran/MSC.Nastran.-Enabled barrel-to-barrel horizontal welding of tank sections by characterizing post-weld radial distortions on Vertical Weld Tool.

Master Of Science (M.S.), Aerospace Engineering (Structures)

Bachelor Of Science (B.S.), Engineering Mechanics And Physics