Adam trebs purdue university4/14/2023 Each day, Patel gets excited about the future. Simply, he enjoys problem-solving.Įach week, he will meet with Shashurin, who recaps new advancements in plasma. He hasn’t had any internships during his time at Purdue, he says because he likes research. He plans to start grad school in the fall - without an internship in between. Though Patel will graduate in August with his bachelor’s, he’d like to continue to do research. With rapid increases in CubeSat mission complexity, such a thruster is in high demand. That would allow the ignition and propulsion systems to function reliably for a long time. Further, there are some other interesting noncontaminative dielectrics we can utilize in LESF ignitors.” We can print on ceramics and get an even smaller gap for breakdowns, so we should be able to reduce the voltage even more. “But there are a lot of new techniques that can be used for manufacturing, such as micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) printing. We just slap the electrodes together,” Patel says. “The way we’re producing LESF is pretty caveman. The approach achieved at least 1.5 million pulses. ![]() This seed plasma will collide and ionize propellant in the accelerator channel - turned into plasma as well - which is then accelerated using a capacitive arrangement. By utilizing a high-voltage pulser and limiting current, sustainable breakdown over the dielectric can occur. Low energy surface flashover is composed of a thin insulator between two electrodes. But in low vacuum and for Patel's research purposes, it’s actually a good effect, Patel says. Surface flashover technology is usually an “undesirable effect in industry,” Patel says, because it places voltage limits on capacitors. Patel's initial research under Professor Alexey Shashurin was evaluating the performance of alternative propellants in Hall thrusters. With current igniter systems, one can only do thousands of pulses, and a PPT needs more than that. The issue is PPTs produce so little thrust that there needs to be a lot of pulses to use all the propellant. An ignitor produces a "spark" that allows a discharge of the energy storage unit between the electrodes, creating and accelerating plasma. A PPT is a “simple device,” Patel says, that consists of two electrodes positioned close to the propellant source. Pulsed plasma thrusters (PPT) are ideal for applications in CubeSats for attitude control, precision spacecraft control and low-thrust maneuvers. Patel had been researching propulsion systems for CubeSats, and electric propulsion offers efficiency advantages over chemical propulsion, being able to travel farther with the same amount of fuel. ![]() One year later as a senior, Patel still is working closely with Shashurin but now on a new project: Developing a novel low-energy surface flashover (LESF) igniter subsystem for pulsed plasma accelerators. More importantly, Shashurin’s passion for electric propulsion rubbed off. Patel won best poster in Combustion and Energy at the end of the SURF Program. Shashurin not only said yes but also allowed Patel to have considerable responsibility within the project. So Patel reached out to Shashurin and asked if he could work on the project. You’re accelerating plasma,” Patel says, smiling. When Patel was reading about projects offered through Purdue’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program, he paused at Shashurin’s work in evaluating the performance of alternative propellants in Hall thrusters. But those intentions shifted his second collegiate year. He intended to stay in the defense sector after enrolling at Purdue. To that end, he started Patel Ballistics, a company that specializes in flare launchers. ![]() He figured it’d be noble, working to keep the U.S. In high school, Patel was intrigued with the idea of a career in the defense industry. It is Shashurin who prompted Patel’s research in electric propulsion. Still, that does little to tarnish the shine on the honor, especially considering it recognizes the work he’s done with Alexey Shashurin, an assistant professor in AAE. He won’t attend the ceremony in Washington D.C., though, as he’s scheduled to start a study abroad program in Greece. Patel is one of three Purdue students selected for the award. Patel recently was named one of “Tomorrow’s Engineering Leaders: The 20 Twenties,” an award from Aviation Week Network in collaboration with the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He didn’t have any engineers - let alone aerospace engineers - in his family.īut that certainly hasn’t made what Patel has done since he’s been in Purdue’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics any less impactful. He wasn’t enamored with space exploration. Patel didn’t grow up helping his dad build airplanes. Adam Patel, a senior in AAE, was selected as one of Aviation Week Network and AIAA's "20 Twenties."Īdam Patel says, almost begrudgingly, that he has a “boring backstory.”
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