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Kinjal Ruecker

  • Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2020

  • Georgia Tech, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, ‘21

  • Host Institution: SpaceX

  • Mentor: Jose Hernandez

In her 4th year at Georgia Tech, Kinjal studies both mechanical and aerospace engineering. She conducts research at the Cryogenic Engineering Laboratory using computational fluid dynamics to study “shuttle loss” in miniature Stirling cryocoolers, and works to develop a miniature compressor motor for use in smallsats. She is also a member of her school’s motorsports team where she uses all her skills to optimize the powertrain on the formula-style racecar for peak performance.

At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Kinjal filled her Indiana Jones dreams and became an asteroid hunter as a member of the NEOWISE team. While there, she additionally conducted her own research project to understand the carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide content of Encke-class comets. She was a co-author on two peer-reviewed journal publications and first-authored a research paper for her Encke-comet findings.

At NASA, she worked on the propulsion system for the Orion capsule that will take humans to the Moon and Mars. She had a hand in test design, testing, data collection, and analysis for components of the main engine and conducted lifetime cycle analyses for flight verification.

As a Brooke Owens Fellow, Kinjal interned at SpaceX where she worked on the full-flow staged combustion "Raptor" engine on the combustion devices team. The "getting to space" is the current limiting factor on making space accessible, so after being a propulsion intern at NASA and for 2 rotations at SpaceX, engine development is quickly becoming her passion. It's also just... so dope to be developing our way to Mars. Kinjal led the early-stage redesigns of the manifolding within the fuel and ox preburner, and designed from first principles a new way to ignite Raptor. She will be returning to SpaceX summer 21.

To work off the intensity of engineering, Kinjal loves trying out different workout fads, playing rugby for her school’s team, scuba diving around the world, jumping out of perfectly good airplanes, and skiing (where she qualified for the Olympics in slalom).