Meet AAE student leader Kshitij Mall

AAE PhD student Kshitij Mall is president of The Mars Society Purdue Chapter.

Name: Kshitij Mall

Preferred Name: Mall

Birthplace: Barkuhi, India

AAE Major/Minor Concentration:Aerospace Systems

Student Classification: PhD student

Name of student organization: The Mars Society Purdue Chapter

Office held within that organization: President

Tell me about the organization—its purpose and some of the events/activities:

The Mars Society at Purdue aims at bringing all Mars fanatics together. Its aims are to relay the information related to current and upcoming Mars missions through eminent guest speakers, and to inspire and educate the next generation about Mars exploration through outreach activities. We plan on getting some of the speakers who didn’t come to Purdue yet and would inspire everyone here by their presence and talks.

Why would you encourage other AAE students to get involved in this organization?

Mars is the next logical destination for human species. Exploration of Mars is very essential for our own survival and missions to Mars require many brains working together to make it happen. We need to start thinking and acting now so that humanity’s future is more prosperous. This needs participation and involvement by every human being in some way or the other. Purdue has world-class students and faculty who can make this happen and possibly change the Purdue’s tagline to: “What we make moves the worlds forward.”

Best Purdue event or organization that you participated in outside of AAE?

Purdue University Cricket League is another extremely good organization. I have represented Purdue in Midwest Cricket Tournament and it is always great to win matches for Purdue on any ground.

Favorite place on campus:

ARMS! Nothing can be more inspiring than that for me. It is not just a building but also an inspiration. I feel extremely lucky to be here.

Favorite class you have taken thus far and why?

My personal favorite is “AAE 590: Hypersonic Performance and Design” by Professor Grant. In this course we get assignments from real-world space missions, for e.g. Curiosity mission, and we get to learn about Apollo and Shuttle entry guidance. Prof. Grant has compiled information from many research papers and his own studies together to beautifully craft this course and I bet this type of class is only taught at Purdue in this world. Before coming to Purdue I wanted to work on entry, descent, and landing on Mars and this course talks about the fundamentals related to it in detail.

Learn more about The Mars Society Purdue Chapter and other AAE student organizations here.