Michael Pfaff Email and Phone Number

Currently attached to mechanical design for the Kuiper avionics group.

My primary job role as a senior engineer was as the Lead Configurator for the Makersat project, a payload on NASA's OSAM-1 spacecraft. I was responsible for tracking volume and mass compliance with requirements, maintaining the full assembly CAD for the payload, and designing the primary structure. Additional responsibilities consisted of helping with systems engineering efforts, interfacing with the customer, and writing assembly/test documentation.

I designed mechanical mounting chassis for Tether's software defined radios, developed requirements and test plans for NASA/DoD projects, and performed basic research and development for various NASA grants. Previous projects included the design and testing of a rover anchoring system for Jupiter's moon Europa, finite element thermal/structural analysis of 3D extruded carbon fiber truss, and testing of a launchable anchoring system for bridging rivers for the US Army.

I worked on exterior ballistics for the US Army. I was the lead python programmer in developing an automated program to analyze ballistic impact data using the Excalibur supercomputer. The hope is that this will enhance future investigation into the effectiveness of Warfighter personal protective body armor.

Assisted Professor Robert Winglee and the Department of Earth and Space Science on a NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase II grant. I worked with the CAD program Solidworks and the Finite Element Modeller ANSYS to design and simulate a high deformation Mach 2 impact of a rocket into a dense surface. This has applications for sample return missions on non-terrestrial objects or planets. I also assisted in the construction and testing of this prototype rocket. Analysis was validated using impact data from the Phase I Black Rock Desert launch in March 2013.

Graduate research assistant. Performed transient thermal analyses of laboratory electric propulsion thrusters using ANSYS, used as topic of Master’s thesis. Performed electromagnetic and explicit dynamics (large structural deformation, thin walled structure) ANSYS analysis for Phase 1 NIAC grant.

Analyzed data from the Heavy Ion Counter (HIC) instrument onboard the spacecraft Galileo. Developed algorithms in Matlab for removing data not eligible for integration into a time-dependant model of heavy ions in Jovian orbit.