Nick Khormaei

How it feels when everything goes wrong: (The hardships of hardware development) [𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 5] I have to rewind from the spring of 2023 to the fall 2022. We hired an agent to help us fundraise in the fall of 2022. The agreement was the first part of the money on our account in February. When they failed to do that, our own investors pulled the bridge financing. Now we had 3 months before we ran out of money. It was fair enough. We had struggled with motor problems for 6 months. The progress on the flying prototype seemed very little. In the end, we found out there were manufacturing errors on them. The countdown timer is 3 months now. Fugg!! Well, Travis James Mathers and I were not ready to give up. We geared up, prepared ourselves for war. I had to fire the whole team due to Danish rules around responsibility. Here is the status at this point: - A fired team with 3 months of resignation, - A prototype with motors that had been causing problems - There is no regulatory approval to fly outside. Okay, here we go! We put in all our efforts to get regulatory approval so we could fly outside and do a demonstration for a potential customer, which would probably get us our bridge financing back. 1.5 months later, we got our regulatory approval as the only ones in Europe able to do onshore and offshore operations with this heavy drone for cargo delivery for wind turbines. 2 months later, we fly outside for the second time, and at about 25 meters of height, we have a small glitch on a motor that causes instability that makes the drone crash into the ground. At this point, all the escape hatches are open for us to jump into and give up. Double FUGG!! Follow me for the next part of the story. If you love what you do, fight for it with everything you have. -MK

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📕🚀 Book Recommendation: “𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐭 𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬”🚀 This book offers a thorough look at functional system simulation for spacecraft development—from design to final verification. Featuring real-world examples from the space industry and small satellite programs, it covers spacecraft modeling, simulator types, and the latest in simulation technology. Whether you’re a student or an industry expert, this is a valuable resource for modern simulation-based engineering. #SpaceTech #SatelliteEngineering #Simulation #Aerospace #SystemEngineering #spaceindustry #DOD #ESA #NASA #PMO #PMP

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Here's my team's final video presentation about our Distributed Electric Propulsion UAV! The flight video near the end is a bit choppy, so I've posted a separate post with a link to our test flight to anyone interesting in seeing it fly.

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Stupid idea. I am an electrical engineer, I was with Nasa as a EE for three decades. In 2010 I helped a team design and build a moon and Mars vehicle prototype, it was the most advanced vehicle on earth, and electrical vehicle. I was also involved in high powered systems, robotics and simulation. First there is not enough infrastructure to support or sustain Massive use of electrical vehicles at this time. Second the technology and motors and batteries that are efficient, cost-effective, and safe is not here yet. The best possible alternative is to gradually over the next generation existing vehicles to use natural gas, and new vehicles, the option to run off of natural gas or gasoline, and for natural gas to be provided at gas stations. Then during this time, the development of motors and batteries as well as infrastructure can commence until the next generation. Then a gradual implementation of electricity at gas stations as infrastructure is built. The ideal car now is to have one that runs off of both natural gas and, gasoline as a electrical hybrid. It will get better, gas, mileage, and utilizing natural gas as it is installed in gas stations will help clean up the environment. This is political. echttps://lnkd.in/gz2QCjv9

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Where are all the Starship-based startups? For the first time in human history, massive missions will be commercially possible and likely at a launch rate not achievable for most launch providers worldwide combined. At an optimistically stated price of $2 million, but more likely closer to other heavy launch vehicles such as Vulcan of around $100 million, it has never been easier to put mass in orbit and send it on its way to wherever we want. With 4x to 6x the mass to LEO of Vulcan if the 100t to 150t to orbit claimed is hit, even a 50t vehicle consuming a whole launch only costs $2,000. Compare that to what NASA pays SpaceX per mission to resupply the ISS at closer to $51,000 per kg. No one is thinking big enough yet, Starship is already flying and is an integral part of NASA’s current HLS plan to land people back on the Moon. SpaceX has plenty of cash on hand with Starlink and commercial launches to perfect Starship, it’s here to stay. What can we do with 50t, half the stated payload of Starship? The Saturn V could put 141t into LEO, but we will not take credit for payload capacity that could disappear (let’s be good conservative engineers) so a repeat lunar mission with a way back is out. What else is there? Geostationary communication sats have a mass of about 5t and top out at 10t with Jupiter 3. These vehicles are usually intended to last about 15 to 20 years and are Billion (with a capital B) dollar assets. They could instead have a massive increase in bandwidth, power, propellant, OR they could be made with multiples of less capable and cheaper parts since now you can just add more. We’re also forgetting all of the possibilities of uncrewed landers, orbiters, or landed ground stations that could be made to carry enough resources to survive for extended periods. These could be sent anywhere in the solar system for maybe $200 million made with massively redundant COTS electrical systems and sensors. What would landing 1t of payload on the Moon’s surface enable? What about 5t or 10t? That’s landing more on the Moon than the CLPS providers weigh at launch. These missions are based around something like $300,000 per kg to the lunar surface, but if you can launch 1t for $200 million the mission is covered in the first $200,000 and the rest results in $100 million of profit per mission for one mission of one kind of payload. The potential here is incredible even using basic assumptions that work against us. Even now in my early career, I’ve met enough exceptional engineers to know a demonstrator, and most of a full-scale vehicle designed for Starship could be designed and built by a team of 10 to 30 people in 2 to 3 years working regular hours with no burnout, which is coincidentally about how long it will be before Starship is flying regularly. Do we really want to get back to the Moon? Get to Mars? We need to sincerely re-evaluate how we plan, design, and launch missions now that we aren’t reliant on billion-dollar vehicles and hardware.

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When you provide the platform for everyone to use for everything, you stay and everything else can come and go depending on what is in vogue at a given moment. AI is currently driving GPU demand. It used to be DSP and general algorithm acceleration. The fact that GPUs have always evolved together with another key platform, the ubiquitous Personal Computers (PCs), and the gaming industry that comes with it, is what makes GPUs have such a stronghold on super fast (dare I say, and cheap) computing. Compare them with FPGAs, for example, which although FPGAs could provide faster computing and at lower power, they don’t command such strong market share comparatively. But why Nvidia as opposed to, say, AMD (or ATI previously)? Maybe it is due to business acumen and strong personality? #ai #computing #technology #gpu #nvidia

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3 minute highlights for the aerospace industry are hard to come by. My newsletter is changing that. I'm starting my own newsletter, called Horizon Highlights. There's so much going on in the industry, and it's hard to keep up! That's why I'm starting an aerospace-related newsletter to bring you information about the industry and career paths within it, modeled after the framework of the Strategy Breakdowns newsletter. If that interests you, all you have to do is sign up with your name and email: https://buff.ly/3xaJHKo No clutter. No nonsense. Straight to the point. Let's reach new horizons together. #AdAstra

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The defense market is opening up and exciting new developments are on the horizon. While the Big 3 have undeniable technology, experience and test facilities to develop exquisite platforms to penetrate deep into contested space they come with a cost and schedule premium. Just think about the first combat debut of the venerable B-2, it performed how it was expected because of extensive testing and analysis. But what if an exquisite highly survivable platform isn't needed? What if a sufficient capability, at required mass, could be designed, built and enter service at a faster rate and at a lower cost by accepting risk and doing things differently? Enter Anduril, the new kid on the block. They offer a unique opportunity to go from the drawing board to flight rather quickly, filling the necessary space between quad-copter drones and high-speed highly survivable platforms. Aircraft are cool, designing new aircraft is even cooler. Something tells me if you're at Anduril you'll have a chance to go from drawing board to flight rather quickly, stamping your name in history. Personally I'm absolutely stoked about the defense market opening up and think big things are in store for these guys.

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Here’s a peek into a cislunar application of optimal estimation and control explored by my team for a class project last semester. Our goal was to design an optimal transfer for a low-thrust spacecraft from an equatorial lunar orbit to an L1 halo orbit, optimally estimate our spacecraft’s state using a square root extended Kalman filter, and implement model predictive control about a linearized trajectory. The result is a realistic simulation including disturbances and estimation error which minimizes fuel used during the orbit transfer. Credit for animating the results belongs to Jerry Varghese.

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As a former employee, I really feel for those who are affected by these recent layoffs. JPL’s teams put so much dedication into their work, advancing amazing groundbreaking missions like Mars Perseverance and the Europa Clipper. It’s tough to watch budget cuts impacting such an innovative organization that’s always pushing the limits of science and technology. It’s sad to see these budget pressures are forcing NASA and JPL to make some hard choices about which missions and resources to prioritize. Still, I hope NASA can support these talented people as they transition to new roles, given all they’ve done for scientific progress. Their expertise will continue to shape the future of space exploration, no matter where they go. #JPL #JPLlayoffs #NASA #Space #CareerOpportunities

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JPL chief engineer, Gentry Lee, talks about the attributes of a systems engineer: - Intellectual curiosity - Big picture view - Connections - Comfortable to change - Comfortable to uncertainty - Proper Paranoia - Knows his resources and margins - Communication skills - Self confidence and energy - Appreciation for process

I recently just wrote my first article about the future of computing in-space. Thanks The Overview for the opportunity! If you’re curious about why it’s not as simple as launching the most capable terrestrial computers to space, this is for you!

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Boo! 🎃 There are 1,351 open, listed space jobs in Washington State as of October 30, 2024. This is up a scary 90% since this time last year and a spooky 50% since the start of 2024. There are a variety of reasons open headcount might increase. However, at this sustained rate, overall growth in the local space economy is surely a primary driver. Indeed, employment by space companies in the greater #Seattle area has increased from about 5,000 in late 2020 to an estimated 13,000 now. This represents roughly a 25% annual growth rate over the last 4 years. The current number of open space positions is not as high as it was between September 2021 and September 2022 when Blue Origin went on a major hiring spree in the Seattle area. However, outside of that time period, the current space jobs figure is the highest since I started tracking in early 2020. While the "big three"--Blue Origin, Amazon Kuiper, and SpaceX Starlink--continue to dominate in terms of space headcount and hiring in Washington State, there are many other companies looking to fill space-specific or space-related positions, including: Stoke Space, Lumen Orbit (YC S24), L3Harris Technologies (Aerojet Rocketdyne), Starfish Space, Gravitics Inc, Kymeta Corporation, LeoStella , Boeing, Amazon Aerospace & Satellite Solutions, BlackSky, Juno Propulsion Inc., US Electrodynamics Inc., Xplore, Janicki, and Karman Space & Defense. If you’re interested in learning more about Washington's growing space and satellite sector, here’s a list of space companies and organizations in the state: https://lnkd.in/gFUzE8h. Also, if you're on the job hunt in the space industry or just want to get involved, check out Space Northwest and attend a Space Happy Hour near you. "Washington State has lots of space!"

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What does going the extra mile look like? In 2019, I did my first internship at NASA JPL. I moved into the Caltech dorms feeling like I had made it in life. From my first day at work, I was hooked. I was at Disneyland for engineers! I couldn’t believe I was working here. Well, it wasn’t exactly like Disneyland — the expectations were high, and I had one shot to make a good first impression. So I did. And I had a great time. But, like most amazing things in life, it came to an end. My internship was over, and I was shipped back home. I felt so lost. I was just working on a NASA project, and now I have to go back to my normal boring life? I had to come back. Luckily, I got a call to return for another engineering internship! But then, the unthinkable happened. A black swan event. A freaking pandemic! You’re kidding… The lab was shut down temporarily, and only critical personnel would be allowed on site. That definitely did not sound like me. Worse, I couldn’t even stay on campus anymore. So I was shipped again, this time to my parents' house, where I had set up my basement as a thinking lab. A year went by, and I still found myself asking; how can I go back? There’s got to be a way. I’d stare at my cat, who would stare back, wondering when I was going to feed her. So I fed her. And then I had an idea! What if I could use my other skills to help JPL? I was quite good at teaching and recruiting students, so I looked for an HR intern position and found a listing. I had to make this happen. But there was a problem—I was an engineer! Why would I be hired for HR? I had to make a strong case. I summoned the courage to turn on my camera to record something for the JPL recruiter. The result? This video resume. Now here’s the crazy part: this video landed me a lot of admiration from the recruiter, but it did not land me the internship. It didn't even land me an interview. Yikes. But this resume was also my first YouTube video, so I kept uploading. 3 years later, as destiny would have it, I am a postdoctoral researcher at NASA JPL, and my engineering channel has over 40,000 subscribers. Now, why am I writing this? Is it to inspire you to take more chances and go the extra mile, even if things don’t work out immediately? Maybe. But maybe there’s another reason. And that reason is that I am a human, and recently, I’ve done a very human thing: I was taking my job for granted. I forgot how hard I’ve worked to be here. I saw life going by faster than ever, and I forgot how, 3 years ago, I would have fought tooth and nail to be here. So, while I wish this story inspires you to go the extra mile, I also wish for it to allow you to reflect on where you are in life right this second and remember that at some point, you likely dreamt of being here.

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Happy Friday LinkedIn! 🌠👩‍🚀 Here are quick tips for applying at Blue Origin: ⭐Research the company: Understand Blue Origin's mission and values to align with the company's goals. 🌍Tailor your resume: Highlight relevant experience and skills related to the position. 🚀Prepare for behavioral interview questions: Practice specific examples of handling situations. 🌕Showcase passion for space exploration: Emphasize enthusiasm for contributing to the company's vision. 🤠Network with current employees: Seek insights into company culture and the role. 🧪Be ready for technical questions: Demonstrate expertise and problem-solving skills in engineering or aerospace. 📑Follow application instructions: Pay close attention to deadlines and specific requirements. Double-check your application

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I'm excited to announce a special issue on Advanced Air Mobility Noise with the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA) and JASA Express Letters! See details below. Submission deadline is February 28, 2025. ( Beckett Y. Zhou, Dr.-Ing., Eric Greenwood , Damiano Casalino ) Special Issue: Advanced Air Mobility Noise: Predictions, Measurements, and Perception Call for papers: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA) and JASA Express Letters are calling for papers for a joint Special Issue on “Advanced Air Mobility Noise: Predictions, Measurements, and Perception.” This special issue covers tools, technologies, ground/flight testing, human response and metrics, and regulation and policy related to advanced air mobility (AAM) vehicle noise. The emerging aviation market of AAM for passengers, cargo, and public services encompasses electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, air taxis, urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): -Predictions of pertinent noise characteristics, whether theoretical, numerical, or empirical -Measurement of AAM noise sources: components, systems, or full vehicle Auralization techniques -Human perception of AAM noise sources -Community noise, impact, engagement, policy, and regulation -Aspects of noise certification for vehicles that will perform AAM missions -Cabin noise or other aspects of passenger comfort -Low noise operations If you have any questions about your intended paper, please email the Guest Editors. Submission Deadline Deadline for manuscripts is 28 February 2025 https://lnkd.in/eAMFnYpt

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Investments in the Space sector are the best move you can make…

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It’s been amazing to see my colleagues in propulsion hone in on the Raptor engine. Incredibly, each version upgrade has come with fewer parts, improved manufacturability & reliability, less mass and higher thrust! Conventional wisdom would have said that there would be trade-off between some of these attributes. The principle is to simplify and then optimize and not the other way around. Notice the clean intakes and joints as the Raptor progresses. Reminds me of a Tuba 🎺. The next generation of Starship (V3) will be powered by these beasts to make the world’s most powerful rocket even more capable. #rockets #spaceX #spacetechnology https://lnkd.in/gHBUBwka

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The Autodynamic Flexible Circuit enables promising new concepts in spacecraft design, space robotics, and extraterrestrial exploration. Here's a paper, introducing the concept that a colleague (Dr. Todd Sheerin) and I presented at the 2024 Small Satellite Conference in Logan Utah. Instead of making space versions of terrestrial robot designs (think Canada Arm), what if we design with microgravity in mind from the start? Making robotic structures out of thin, flexible circuits that change shape on command allows new forms of robots that store flat and weigh nearly nothing. The low forces they apply are appropriate if there's no "lifting" to do. This is space!

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