MS-HCS-2026 · Rev 5.1 · 2026-05-09
Part No. · Preliminary Data
MS-HCS-2026
Mayank Shrivastava · High Carl Sagan · 2026
Electronics engineer & hobbyist. Flight-proven power systems, fault-tolerant designs, hardware that has to earn its keep.
Mfg · Bangalore, IN
Package · HUMAN, 1-piece
Operating since · 2021
Projects · projects.highcarlsagan.dev
Status · Open to opportunities, 2026
Features
  • Five years of flight-proven delivery on the Firefly LEO constellation — six satellites on orbit, zero major power anomalies
  • End-to-end spacecraft bus efficiency raised 85 % → 93 % via topology and compensation redesign
  • DC-DC buck, active clamp forward (ACF), magnetics, closed-loop compensation
  • FMECA-driven reliability engineering; hands-on 4-layer PCB design, reviewed flight cards up to 12 layers
  • SPENVIS / SHIELDOSE-2 shielding analysis: 30 krad (Si) ambient closed to ~1 krad component-level over 7-year design life
  • Flight-heritage 32-bit MCUs, STM32, ESP32, ASIL-D safety PMICs, CAN / CAN FD, RS-422, QuadSPI, SCPI automation
  • ECSS, NASA-HDBK-4001, ISRO PAX, IPC Class 3
Applications
  • Spacecraft EPS & PCDU for LEO constellations
  • Safety-critical avionics and ECU-class hardware
  • Motorsport & F1 power-unit electronics
  • Aerospace & defence high-reliability systems
  • Industrial power conversion and conditioning
  • Anything that must survive launch, radiation, thermal cycling, or long-term operation
Operating Characteristics · Typical Values
Years at Pixxel5years
Satellites delivered to orbit6units, flight
Major power anomalies, commissioning0events
Buck converters signed off, production11rails
Mission / design life, delivered hardware5 / 7years
§ 1.0
About the part

Spacecraft power electronics engineer with five years of flight-proven delivery and full lifecycle ownership — architecture through CDR, hands-on 4-layer PCB layout, TVAC and vibration qualification, on-orbit commissioning. Six LEO satellites on orbit, zero major power anomalies, spacecraft bus efficiency raised from 85 % to 93 %. Currently Pixxel, Bangalore.

My focus spans power system architecture, DC-DC converter design, AOCS motor drivers, fault-tolerant system design, and COTS radiation-tolerant parts qualification. I work to ECSS, NASA, and ISRO standards across all phases of development. My COTS parts-selection approach — built on NASA NEPP, JAXA, ESA, and CERN / DOE published data — cut component cost by over 90 % and procurement lead time from 16–18 weeks to under three.

I approach hardware the way most engineers approach a puzzle they can't put down. Instinct and understanding first (why does the circuit behave this way), simulation to confirm. I build things outside work because the problems don't stop when the working day does.

I'm most valuable when the work means getting hands dirty in the lab: building, testing, debugging. Open to opportunities that put me closer to the hardware, wherever that is.

Technical Areas
StandardsECSS, NASA NPR 7123, NASA-HDBK-4001, ISRO PAX, IPC Class 3
Power ArchitectureEPS / PCDU
Converter DesignBuck, ACF, AOCS motor drivers
Stability AnalysisBode
ReliabilityFMECA, FDIR
RadiationTID / SEE / SEL, SPENVIS, SHIELDOSE-2
EMI / EMCFilter + ground
MCUs32-bit flight-heritage
InterfacesCAN FD, RS-422, SPI, I²C, UART
PCBIPC Class 3, 4L→12L
Test AutomationSCPI, Bode 100 FRA
SoftwarePython, C, Bash
§ 2.0
Operation Flow
Figure 1. How this part thinks about engineering problems
INPUTS OUTPUTS Weird symptom Novel problem Missing tech Open design canvas STAGE 1 Understand Think first, simulate second STAGE 2 Decompose Smallest piece that can fail STAGE 3 Build Schematic · board Magnetics · firmware STAGE 4 Validate Bench · scope · FRA DITL · qualification Working hardware Debugged understanding Documentation Next problem Overthink loop · entered freely, exited by deadline every test changes the model
§ 3.0
Electrical Characteristics
Selected projects. Work (flight hardware) listed first; personal work below.
Live build log · current state of every personal project, updated as I work on them.
projects.highcarlsagan.dev ↗
Work · 2026

In-House Spacecraft AOCS Sensor Package

Contributing to the design of an in-house spacecraft AOCS sensor package from requirements through CDR. Flight hardware targeting 2026 fabrication. Compact multi-board architecture with flight-heritage 32-bit MCU, hardware-level fault protection, and CAN-based flight interfaces.

Requirements → CDR Flight hardware · 2026 32-bit MCU
Work · 2025

Fleet EPS Monitoring & Requirements-Traceability Tool

Internal Python / YAMCS-based fleet monitoring tool for the Firefly LEO constellation. Six operational satellites, hundreds of EPS health parameters, subsystem-level anomaly detection, and live requirements traceability. Used for fleet health triage and post-pass review.

Python YAMCS 6 satellites
Personal · Active development

Power System Sizing Toolkit (PSST)

Open-source LEO power and radiation sizing in Python / Streamlit. Orekit orbit propagation, SHIELDOSE-2 TID, AP-8 / AE-8 trapped particle models. Battery and solar array sizing, eclipse modelling, TID / DD / SEE estimation. Replaces the SMAD Chapter 11 + Excel workflow used across the industry. Excludes ITAR-restricted models.

Python Streamlit Orekit
Personal · In design

Active-Clamp Forward SMPS, 200 W

ZVS active-clamp forward converter. 48 V input, 5–24 V selectable output. Synchronous rectification, analog control loop with TL431 isolated feedback, planar transformer. Will be published as an end-to-end reference covering magnetics, EMI filter design, and isolated feedback compensation.

200 W 48 V → 5–24 V ZVS · planar
Personal · VOL-1 in build · PSU shipped

VOL-1 Volumetric POV Display & Dual-Rail 60 W Bench PSU

VOL-1: ESP32-S3 rotor driving 8×12 APA102C matrix over inductive wireless power, STM32G031 base. Hardest part: power delivery to a rotating assembly. Dual-Rail PSU: 5 V / 3.3 V at 6 A per rail; daily lab driver.

ESP32-S3 Inductive power Rotating assembly
GitHub ↗
Personal · Hardware in hand

OakBridge MkI Custom Embedded Peripheral

End-to-end embedded project: ESP32-S3 MCU, 480×320 IPS display, Cherry MX matrix, FRAM config, USB HID, WiFi/MQTT. Custom KiCad PCB and OpenSCAD enclosure, released as open hardware under CERN-OHL-W-2.0.

CERN-OHL-W-2.0 ESP32-S3 Open hardware
GitHub ↗
Personal · Infrastructure

Carl's Homelab · Self-Hosted Infrastructure

Raspberry Pi 4 running Cloudflare Tunnel, Caddy reverse proxy, Authelia SSO, Pi-hole DNS, Home Assistant, Tailscale mesh, Filebrowser, and a qBittorrent stack, all behind Authelia. Serves this datasheet from the Pi you're currently connected to. Full config and documentation in version control.

Raspberry Pi 4 Caddy Pi-hole Authelia This page runs here
GitHub ↗
Personal · Daily driver

m-hypr-config · Arch Linux Dotfiles

Arch Linux with Hyprland. Custom Waybar, Rofi, dunst, OpenRGB. Fully version-controlled environment.

Arch Linux Hyprland Dotfiles
GitHub ↗
Personal · College final-year build · 2020

8-bit Microcomputer from Discrete TTL

Final-year B.Tech build: a working 8-bit microcomputer assembled from 74-series TTL logic, with a 28C16 EEPROM holding microcoded control words, 74189 SRAM, and a hand-rolled instruction set. Microcode-level control over fetch / decode / execute, clocked by a 555-based pulse generator with single-step debugging. Awarded Best Paper, NCRTEE 2020.

Discrete TTL 28C16 microcode 74189 SRAM Best Paper, NCRTEE 2020
§ 4.0
Application Notes
AN-01 · LINUX

Ricing & Homelab

Daily driver is Arch with Hyprland, custom Waybar, Rofi, OpenRGB. Self-hosted on a Pi 4 running Cloudflare Tunnel, Caddy, Authelia, Pi-hole, Home Assistant, Filebrowser, Tailscale.

↗ You are on that Pi right now

AN-02 · ASTRONOMY

Voyager & the backyard

Carl Sagan got me here. The Voyagers, still transmitting from interstellar space, remain the most extraordinary engineering achievement I know of.

Long-term roadmap: Geiger counter → fluxgate magnetometer → hydrogen-line radio telescope (1420 MHz) → cloud chamber → SiPM muon detector.

AN-03 · MOTORSPORT

Formula 1

The engineering side: power-unit development, aerodynamic philosophy, systems integration. The intersection of extreme reliability and extreme performance is exactly the problem space I want to work in professionally.

AN-04 · TRAINS

Trains

I love trains.

That's it, that's the tweet.

§ 5.0
Revision History
Rev. Date Change Description
5.1 2025-01 → Senior Electrical Engineer
  • Architecting EPS and PCDU for an 8-satellite sub-200 kg EO constellation
  • Contributing to the design of an in-house spacecraft AOCS sensor package, 2026 fabrication
  • Contributing to Pixxel's COTS radiation-tolerant parts selection process; selection-and-screening approach cut component cost over 90 % and lead time from 16–18 weeks to under three
  • Raised bus end-to-end efficiency from 85 % to 93 %
  • Supported the Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation (HILS) campaign through to clean completion
4.0 2021-06 → 2024-12 Electrical Engineer
  • Delivered end-to-end EPS and PCDU for the Firefly LEO constellation (six satellites), zero major power anomalies across commissioning
  • Designed and signed off 11 flight buck converters, each rated up to 70 W at 93 % efficiency
  • Drove COTS radiation-tolerant parts selection for the Firefly EPS — TID / SEE literature surveys plus flight-heritage screening across the BOM
  • Led FMECA for EPS and power subsystems; transitioned prototypes EM → FM
  • Personally executed schematic design and 4-layer PCB; reviewed up to 12-layer against ISRO PAX / ECSS
  • Defined spacecraft grounding per NASA-HDBK-4001; owned V&V (Bode, TVAC, vibration, DITL)
3.0 2021-02 → 2021-06 Electrical Engineering Intern
  • Protection circuit simulation in LTSpice / TINA. UVLO, OVLO, latch-up limiters
  • EM prototype bring-up support
2.0 2020 B.Tech · ECE
  • Inderprastha Engineering College, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University
  • Best Paper, NCRTEE 2020: 8-bit microcomputer from discrete TTL (28C16 EEPROM, 74189 SRAM, microcoded control ROM)
1.0 Ongoing Hardware as a hobby
  • First circuits, first schematics, reading everything. Still the same fuel.
§ 6.0
Ordering Information
I'm looking for roles where the hardware has to earn its keep: space and aerospace, motorsport, defence, industrial power. If what you're building has to survive launch loads, radiation, thermal cycling, or anything else that makes ordinary electronics give up, I'd like to hear about it.

Availability

● Open to senior roles, 2026

Pursuing senior power electronics roles in space, motorsport, aerospace & defence, and high-reliability industrial power. At my best when the work involves building, testing, and debugging real hardware.

Senior / Staff European Space F1 / Motorsport Aerospace & Defence AU / SG Sponsorship discussion welcome