Arjun Krishna ’19 M.Eng. ’20 is Charting New Ground in Space Exploration

You might say that Arjun Krishna ’19 M.Eng. ’20 was destined to be an engineer. "I was curious at an early age," he says, noting that he was part of a competitive robotics program during all four years of his high school education. "I liked building things. I knew I wanted to study mechanical engineering."

Even as a student at Brooklyn Technical High School, Krishna was pushing the boundaries of what he could learn. He interned at the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering Control/Robotics Research Laboratory, where he worked on a project titled Solar Hydrogen Drone for Air Sampling. During the summer between his junior and senior years of high school, he interned at Stevens' Robotics and Automation Laboratory as part of the Weston Research Scholars program. His project focused on developing a humanoid balancing reaction system for a bipedal robot.

When it was time to choose a college, Stevens felt like the right choice to Krishna. "I had already experienced the campus, and the location was perfect – I could live on campus but also visit my family on the weekends," he says. "Stevens was the right environment to build the skills necessary for my current career."

He was also able to further his interest in Computer-Aided Design (CAD) by serving as a teaching assistant for two different CAD courses.

Krishna's senior year at Stevens coincided with the university's entry into NASA's 2019 RASC-AL Special Edition: Moon to Mars Ice and Prospecting Challenge. It was the first time Stevens competed in the challenge. Krishna and his team earned second place for its project, Drill-based Extraction of Ice-water and Martian Overburden System (DEIMOS), a semi-autonomous drilling and water extraction robot that is capable of extracting water from ice deposits buried beneath simulated lunar or Martian soil.

"The event was held at Langley Research Center," Krishna recalls. "It was exciting to see what a NASA facility is like. The project also taught me a lot. We had to write a proposal about what we were going to build and how we planned to accomplish the competition objectives. We then had to prototype, build and test our robot prior to arriving at Langley, all while under the time crunch of milestone submissions to NASA. It was a highly valuable exercise. Stevens was one of only ten universities chosen to compete. Our machine did really well."

Krishna has since pointed to DEIMOS and the RASC-AL competition when pursuing career opportunities. After earning his master's degree in engineering at Stevens, concentrating on robotics and control, he began an internship at Masten Space Systems. The company quickly brought him onto its XL-1 Structures Design Team as a mechanical engineer, where he designed landing gear for the XL-1 Lunar Lander as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to deliver payloads to the south pole of the moon.

In 2022, Krishna joined SpaceX as a structures engineer for the company's Starship program. "I work exclusively on Starship," he explains. "The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is a workhorse, constantly launching and landing. Starship, however, is different in terms of its scale and capability. We are developing a completely new type of rocket system where both the booster and upper stage are reusable."

In October 2024, Starship – and Krishna's team – made history with the "catch" of the Super Heavy booster. The groundbreaking moment was widely broadcast across the media as the booster was caught mid-air by mechanical arms and returned to the launchpad. It was a critical milestone in developing the world's first 100% reusable rocket system.

Krishna's primary focus is on manufacturing. "One of my main focuses is developing build processes and instructions for welding and assembling the rocket together," he says. "I also interface daily with the build technicians and design tooling to install flight components for each build. More recently, I designed flight hardware that was part of the thermal protection structure on Ships 30 and 31. We share responsibilities across the team as well. Our roles change regularly. I have to bring high energy to work every day. But I love what I do!"

When asked about his success in such a challenging field, Krishna talks about perseverance and extreme ownership. "Owning a project from cradle to grave, being a direct and meaningful contributor, and knowing exactly how and why you contributed are important to building a path to success in the aerospace industry," he advises. "The companies at the forefront of this field want employees who are fully engaged and who know their projects inside and out."

That said, Krishna notes the importance of taking a step back now and then to consider the overall impact of his work. "Day to day, it is easy to get lost in the weeds of the work and miss the enormity of it," he says.

Living and working in Brownsville, Texas make it difficult for Krishna to get back to Castle Point on a regular basis, but he hopes to become more involved with his alma mater. "Given the time and opportunity I would like to be able to help other Stevens students begin careers in this industry."