Flight Profile · Operator CIB · M-2026

Christian Ibarra

AEROSPACE ENGINEERING · UT ARLINGTON · AVIONICS / GNC
PositionAvionics & CDH Lead
AffiliationAIAA · UTA
GradMay 2027
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Section 01
01
Who I am
Operator intake — background, focus, eligibility
§01 · Who I am

I build the boxes that have to work the moment power goes on.

SchoolUT Arlington — B.S. Aerospace Eng.
MinorsMechanical · Space Systems Eng.
FocusAvionics · CDH · GNC · Dynamics · I&T
ClearanceU.S. Citizen — ITAR eligible
LanguagesEnglish (native) · Spanish (fluent)
Open toSummer 2026 — Avionics / GNC / Systems
§02 · The team — AIAA at UTA

Where engineering students fly real hardware.

  • Officer & Professional Events Coordinator for a 530+ member aerospace org, working a 20-officer leadership team.
  • AIAA runs student launch vehicles, CubeSats and propulsion — not just slides.
  • This is where my path turns from coursework to a mission with a launch date — and I lead one of them.
Members530+
RoleOfficer · Events
SinceFeb 2024
M-006 · BLUESPEAR Active FEB 2026 — PRESENT
Avionics & CDH Lead · AIAA at UTA

Avionics that can command, log, and survive the flight.

S
Situation

100 km on student hardware — every gram and volt is flight-critical.

T
Task

Own avionics & CDH: prove the flight computer can run the mission.

A
Action

Architected the data bus, flight-computer trade, redundancy split & hazard analysis.

R
Result

A review-ready baseline: doc control, ECO logic, traceable decisions.

Target100 km
Log50 Hz
RedundancyPrimary + Backup
§03 · The design driver
100 km
Target apogee — the Kármán line

Boost, coast, and apogee at 100 km is the number that anchors everything: power budget, logging duration, and recovery timing. Every avionics decision traces back to surviving this curve.

M-005 · CUBESAT-FS Complete JAN — DEC 2025
Communications Team · AIAA

Closing the link budget on a small-sat mission.

S
Situation

A year-long CubeSat feasibility study needed a defensible comms path.

T
Task

Own communications — turn mission intent into an RF architecture.

A
Action

Derived downlink volume & pass timing; ran a COTS radio/antenna trade study.

R
Result

A positive-margin baseline with documented assumptions for design review.

BandUHF
Margin+8.5 dB
Span12 mo
M-002 · MAE-3307 Complete JAN — MAY 2025
Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics & Control

A quaternion 6-DOF spacecraft, simulated.

S
Situation

Coursework demanded real attitude & orbital dynamics, not toy models.

T
Task

Build verified orbital-propagation, attitude and rendezvous models.

A
Action

Implemented a quaternion-based 6-DOF simulation in MATLAB & Simulink.

R
Result

Damped attitude response verified against analytical cases.

Model6-DOF
StateQuaternion
ToolMATLAB / Simulink
M-007 · EAL-CORE01 Operational MAY 2026 — PRESENT
Designer / Operator · Personal Infrastructure

A hardened infrastructure node, engineered like flight gear.

  • Tailnet-only access — no public exposure; off-mesh devices simply time out.
  • Deny-by-default firewall; Dockerized Nextcloud bound to localhost.
  • Live / backup storage split — verified the boundary holds, by design.
AccessTailnet-only
StackDocker / Nextcloud
▢ L1-HPR · LAUNCH / RECOVERY PHOTO
M-004 · L1-HPR · Flown · Nov 2025

Designed, built, and flew it — end to end.

Level-1 certification, solo: sized in OpenRocket & SolidWorks (CG/CP, motor), built and integrated recovery — clean launch, safe recovery.

§08 · Working envelope

The toolchain behind the missions.

CAP·01Programming
PythonMATLABCC++BashLaTeX
CAP·02Engineering SW
SimulinkSolidWorksFusion 360AltiumANSYS FluentOpenRocket
CAP·03Tools & Systems
LinuxGitDockerCisco IOSNetworkingTensile Testing
§09 · Open a channel

Let's talk flight hardware.

Available · Summer 2026 — Avionics · GNC · Trajectory · Systems
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