Hello! My name is Carlos Westhelle. I’m a senior in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign. People sometimes ask me why I picked aerospace, and the only thing I can say is that I have always loved airplanes and spacecrafts, and when applying to school, it looked cool, so 4 years later here I am loving what I am learning.

I am currently on my third and final coop tour here at NASA. I am working in the Advanced Mission Design Branch working on combining a Low-Thrust Matlab program with another program and make them work together. I have some side projects as well such as combining a Parafoil Dynamic Simulator with STK (Satellite Tool Kit) for visualization purposes. Last tour I worked in the same division, but in the Applied Aeroscience and CFD branch, there my main project was to develop a Backup Air Data System (AeroDAD), for the X-38. The X-38 is the prototype for the Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) that will be the emergency lifeboat for the International Space Station crew. The program that I made is actually going to fly on the next test flight at the end of the month; I can’t wait to see it in action. On my first tour, I worked in the same place I am right now but with the guidance system for a Mars Sample Return Mission.

A little background on myself: I was born in Chicago, lived there until I was four, then moved to Brasil where I lived for 10 years. All my relatives live there as well. After eighth grade I went back to Chicago, did high school there and then went to the University of Illinois. Needless to say, I enjoy the weather here in Texas much more then in Chicago.

Besides work I love to play volleyball and soccer, and anything that involves nice beaches and warm weather.