Merry Christmas to all our readers!! We are back with a new blog from the desk of B2D2 and this time, we will be showing off our newest members of the team. As most of you might be aware, the REXUS/BEXUS campaign has been postponed to 2022 and since most of our members will be graduating this summer, this can only mean one thing: A change of guard!!
So, here are the newest additions to our wonderful team and the people who will be responsible for making sure our experiment is safely launched in the rocket.
Meet Arjun Monga. With a bachelors of technology in engineering physics and interests in spacecraft dynamics, propulsion and mission control, he is the systems engineer of our team and is responsible for integration of various experiment sub systems. He hails from India and joined the team to open his doors of opportunity in the space sector and to expand both his network and his technical knowledge. He has been working on the Recovery Unit since he joined the team and considers the GlobalStar and VHF connections as one of the coolest pieces of technology in the experiment.
Diogo Pinhero is the guy responsible for our ground station software and the data analysis of our experiment. In other words, he is one of the mission control guys! With a background in machine learning and a degree in Computer science, he is on the team to gain more hands on and project experiences in his engineering journey. He has been primarily involved in software work from when he joined the team and he is very impressed with the mechanics of the ejection system.
This is Leonardo Fillipeschi, the other Italiano in this team! He is currently pursuing his BSc. in Information and Communication technology. He is working on the PCBs in the Magnetometer Boom Assembly which communicates with the magnetometers and collects the data measured. He is interested in understanding the big picture of things and is fascinated by the space industry. He joined the team to get a step closer to his lifelong dream of becoming an astronaut and considers our experiment and its workings as a very cool piece of technology.
Meet Victor, the successor to the ADCS in-charge: Jordi Boldu. He did his bachelors in aerospace engineering in Madrid, Spain and has been very active in his university with involvement in flight clubs and rocketry groups. His interests lie developing drones and UAVs and is responsible for continuing the development of the ADCS, including software, hardware, and testing. He has joined B2D2 to learn more about control algorithms and autonomous systems and wants to explore and improve our Free Falling Unit (FFU).
And finally, Marci Galbacs, our creative friend from Budapest, Hungary. He graduated with an undergraduate degree from TU Budapest and gained quite an experience in welding and manufacturing. He is pursuing his MSc in Industrial Design Engineering from KTH and considers himself the “black sheep” in our team of aerospace engineers and physicists. He would be responsible for the manufacturing and testing of the Magnetometer Boom Assembly (MBA) and is also working on some exciting animations of our experiment as a side-project. He was involved in a similar cubesat team at TU Budapest. He heard about B2D2 from a team member and immediately pounced on the opportunity of joining the team. He is one of the rare old school guys and loves to spend hours on end manufacturing on the manual lathe in the student workshop.
Hope yall had fun learning about our new team. These are the faces who will realize the launch campaign of B2D2 and we are very excited for them to join our team. In the next coming weeks, we will publish new blogs in the words of these team members and showcase the work to be done. Until then, God Jul, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!