Graduate Research Training Fund report – Claudio Rapisarda (2023, DPhil Engineering Science)

From August to December 2025, I undertook a research placement at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a visiting researcher from the University of Oxford. I was embedded within the Guidance, Navigation and Control and Entry, Descent and Landing groups, where I was able to extend my doctoral research in hypersonic aerothermodynamics into a mission-driven engineering context.

The placement was centred on applying numerical methodologies of increasing fidelity developed during my DPhil to planned NASA missions. In particular, I contributed to studies supporting ARRIVAL, an Earth based demonstrator mission aimed at de-risking aerocapture technology for future flagship missions to the outer planets. Aerocapture remains one of the most promising yet unflown manoeuvres in planetary exploration, offering significant reductions in interplanetary travel time and substantial gains in delivered payload mass. In addition, the placement involved contributions to Mars Sample Retrieval activities, specifically studies of reaction control system jet interactions for the Sample Retrieval Lander.

A key benefit of the placement was sustained collaboration with engineers and researchers across multiple NASA centres, including NASA Langley and NASA Ames. This exposure clarified how aerothermodynamics interfaces with guidance, structures, and mass budgeting at system level, and highlighted constraints that are often absent from purely academic studies. Working in this environment strengthened my ability to communicate uncertainty, justify modelling choices, and adapt analysis methods to real engineering decision making.

During the placement I also participated in several internal and external technical workshops, including a course delivered by the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center on machine learning and distributed computing methods. Part of the research conducted during the placement will be presented at the AIAA Aerodynamic Decelerator Systems Conference in June 2026 and will form part of my DPhil work, illustrating the applicability of reduced order methods to complex, mission relevant NASA scenarios.

I am very grateful for the financial support provided by University College through a travel grant, which helped to partially finance my research stay in the United States. The placement played an important role in grounding my doctoral work within realistic mission contexts.

Published: 6 March 2026

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