Alec Mudek is a Ph.D. student at Purdue University and a Pathways student intern in the Navigation & Mission Design Branch at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Alec obtained a B.S. in Aeronautical & Astronautical engineering from Purdue in May 2015 and a M.S. in Aeronautical & Astronautical engineering in December 2017. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. with research interests in interplanetary trajectory design and atmospheric probe mission design.
Since starting graduate school, Alec has investigated trajectory options to Saturn and trajectory options to Venus for various mission concepts. He has also cataloged ballistic and chemical-impulsive trajectory options to Uranus over a 50-year span of launch dates from 2023 – 2073. Alec’s current research involves building low-fidelity, rapid design models for ballistic probes capable of concurrently solving the interplanetary trajectory, atmospheric trajectory, and atmospheric probe subsystems designs. The goal of these models is to better inform interplanetary trajectory designers early in the design process for atmospheric probe missions.
Contact Info: amudek@purdue.edu