Logan Halstrom

B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, UC Davis, 2013
B.S. in Aerospace Science and Engineering, UC Davis, 2013

Logan is a PhD Candidate in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering with a research emphasis on applications of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to unsteady, turbulent, massively-separated flows. Logan’s thesis focuses on CFD simulation of the unstable pendulum motion of NASA’s Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle’s main parachutes. This CFD model is validated by comparison to empirical data and will be utilized to more fundamentally understand and mitigate parachute dynamic instability.

Logan also currently works at NASA Ames Research Center's Systems Analysis Office as a Research Aerospace Engineer supporting development of the Orion spacecraft. Previously, he was a Pathways Intern at NASA Johnson Space Centers’s Applied Aeroscience and CFD Branch, where his work focused on dynamic CFD applications such as moving mesh simulations of parachutes and of launch vehicle abort scenarios. Logan also supported the design and optimization of the Orion Flush Air Data System (FADS), which provides crucial information about the vehicle’s atmospheric descent. Logan was also an Engineering Intern at JSC's Aircraft Operations Division, where he designed and conducted a pitot-static calibration flight test for the WB-57 aircraft.

As an undergraduate transfer student at UC Davis, Logan was captain of the Advanced Modeling Aeronautics Team, which placed 2nd internationally in the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Aero Design competition. Logan's personal interests include cooking, long-distance running, backpacking, gardening, digital photography, acoustic guitar, and world travel.