Crew 292 Rajvi Patel

Rajvi Patel

Profile:

Mangalyaatra Crew Engineer Rajvi is an aerospace engineer at Kaleidoscope Innovation where she works on commercial aircrafts to make them safe to fly. She pursued her master's in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor with a specialization in Space Systems working on satellites and space mission design. Prior to this, she worked at Raytheon Technologies in Bengaluru, India. During her journey in India, Vikram Sarabhai Community Science Centre (VASCSC) was her second home where she explored the world of science beyond the rigid framework of theoretical classes. Throughout her life, she has explored her passion for engineering by working with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), aircrafts, robots, satellites, and spacecrafts. She loves to build things and make it work. She aspires to be a space explorer which drives her motivation for being on Crew 292.

Additionally, Rajvi has led multiple community initiatives like educating underprivileged kids and awareness activities for women empowerment. She co-led an international organization called Graduate Rackham International (GRIN) at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. She also loves hiking, traveling, reading, doing yoga and swimming.

Research:

As a Crew Engineer on team Mangalyaatra, she will utilize her engineering expertise to routinely monitor the equipment used by the crew and repair them in case of systems failure. Her duty will include providing daily status reports for each piece of equipment. In addition to these responsibilities, she will conduct her research that primarily focuses on propellant production utilizing water-bearing minerals at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), Utah. Utilizing such propellants could decrease the cost of interplanetary travel and prove to be an additional source of propellant for the space exploration crew.