Trailblazer of the Week

Alexei Garcia

3 September 2021

Before he earned his degree in mechanical engineering, and minor in aerospace engineering, recent Caltech graduate Alexei Garcia received an email about an opportunity to join the Lunar Trailblazer team. The Mission Operation Systems/Ground Data Systems (MOS/GDS) subsystem was seeking student interns to tackle technical questions about processing and displaying the lunar orbiting spacecraft’s eventual telemetry data. The application included example problems.

“The problem was open-ended and was left up to us to interpret and analyze,” says Garcia. “I found it to be a challenging and rewarding experience that I was proud of.”

After Garcia excitedly secured his Trailblazer internship with MOS/GDS, he recalls he had to hit the ground running.

“I found the task of getting up to speed with the project and learning all of the terminology of Lunar Trailblazer to be rather daunting when I first started,” Garcia says. “I spent a few days and even a week just trying to learn all of the acronyms, as well as how the Trailblazer team worked together. Just operation of the mission for MOS required a lot of space engineering consideration and multiple meetings to fully understand how Trailblazer’s orbit around the Moon was modeled. Trailblazer has shown me that a real space mission is magnitudes larger in scope than any other research project for space that I've done.”

Before interning for Trailblazer, Garcia had gained previous space mission experience working on the Constellation Autonomous Space Technology demonstration of Orbital Reconfiguration (CASTOR) with Caltech professor Soon-Jo Chung. Garcia and other students “were tasked with creating the alpha-level design of the 3-CubeSat constellation mission” which they presented to members of GALCIT, JPL, and Northrop Grumman.

“I was a part of the guidance and navigation team which simulated injection orbits, reconfiguration maneuvers for changing constellation shape, as well as selecting a propulsion system,” says Garcia. “I specifically helped to simulate the attitude determination and control system.”

As an MOS/GDS intern, Garcia has drafted software that will assist in the command of Lunar Trailblazer’s navigation to science targets on the Moon. Specifically, he’s working to create software in the program MATLAB to interface with Systems Tool Kit (STK), another program which simulates the Trailblazer’s satellite orbit around the Moon and the areas it can view on the lunar surface.

“It is my responsibility to calculate relevant values for when the satellite can view different targets,” he says. “The science team can then select appropriate times so that MOS/GDS can plan out mission campaigns for the spacecraft.”

Most of Garcia’s day-to-day work as a Trailblazer intern involves researching syntax and testing new features in his own custom scripts that interface between MATLAB and STK. He notes that implementing these new features often requires an abundance of research into existing online documentation. This documentation is akin to an operation manual and is available on sites like GitHub for publicly sharing and developing software.

“It is foreign territory that I need to spend hours or even days researching documentation online, reaching out to other members of Lunar Trailblazer, or directly contacting support teams for assistance,” explains Garcia. “I find it most rewarding when the culmination of my hard work and testing finally comes together, and I accomplish the task and my new feature works perfectly. It’s very satisfying to send that final push to GitHub with all of my new changes that I can personally take responsibility for.”

Originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, Garcia has been involved in STEM ever since middle school when he first joined the Technology Student Association (TSA). It was through TSA that he came to compete with other young students at the state and national level in all sorts of STEM-based contests including video game design, VEX robotics, CNC design and more. He credits TSA as one of his most formative experiences.

“My time with TSA really kick-started my career as an engineer,” says Garcia. “I specifically remember one guest speaker from Orbital ATK who spoke about their mission to create rockets for missions to space. It was that moment that really inspired my interest in aerospace. I’ve been following that dream ever since.”

Now a 2021 Caltech graduate, Garcia believes he has learned a lot about how to manifest one’s career goals.

“To someone who is just starting out, I say that it is natural to have doubts about whether you are qualified or capable, but you have to be willing to put yourself out in difficult or unknown situations to achieve your goals,” he says. “Even if you don’t believe that you will be able to make it as a young engineer, if it’s something that you want, you need to try and try with all of your might. I was very uncertain whether I would be able to pass the interview and challenge problems for Lunar Trailblazer, but I’m here now!”

In addition to CASTOR and his Lunar Trailblazer internship, Garcia participated in several different clubs during his time at Caltech, including the rocketry club and Engineers Without Borders. He is set to begin graduate school at Stanford this fall in the aeronautics and astronautics department. When he isn’t scripting a spacecraft’s software, he’s enjoying time away from his screen.

“Growing up in Utah, I love most outdoor activities like hiking, skiing, and fishing,” he says. “I also love to play sports. My favorite sport is volleyball which I learned from my mother who played in college. My mother is from Russia and is ethnically Korean. She taught me how to play when I was very young and I still try to play with her when I can, COVID-permitting. My father is from Utah and is ethnically Spanish. I love to play games with friends and family, whether those are board or video games, I play them all.”

Reflecting on his Lunar Trailblazer internship and what now lies ahead, Garcia hadn’t considered himself as someone at the forefront of space exploration before.

“It does feel pretty amazing to be able to contribute to exploration of our physical world,” says Garcia. “I hope to make an even bigger impact in the future.”

Alexei Garcia is a Caltech MOS/GDS intern and Trailblazer of the Week!

By Emily Felder
Emily Felder is a Pasadena City College student and Caltech intern working on science communication for the Lunar Trailblazer mission.