Vast Senior Mechanical Engineer, Lunar at Vast to lead thermal architecture and analysis for lunar surface elements including power stations and crewed habitats. Own end-to-end thermal design, analysis, and qualification for lunar hardware.
Responsibilities
Define the thermal control architecture for Vast's lunar surface elements - trading passive, heat pipe, pumped fluid loop, and thermal storage approaches against mass, power, complexity, and dust exposure
Size and place radiators for the lunar surface environment, accounting for diurnal sink temperature swings, albedo and lunar IR loading, terrain and self-view blockage, and latitude-driven constraints
Own the survival thermal case through lunar night - heater power budget, thermal mass and phase-change storage strategy, and dormancy and wake-up thermal states
Own the habitat, airlock, and node thermal control - cabin temperature and humidity control, condensing heat exchanger, coolant loop architecture, and depress/repress thermal transients
Build and maintain the detailed system thermal models, contribute reduced-order models to Vast's design, simulation, and validate against Thermal Desktop, SINDA/FLUINT, or equivalent
Own the thermal budget: min/max predicted temperatures per component against qualification limits across launch, cruise, descent, landed day, landed night, and off-nominal conditions
Select thermal coatings, MLI, heat pipes, thermal straps, isolators, heaters, and RTDs for the lunar environment, with explicit accounting for regolith dust deposition, abrasion, and UV degradation of end-of-life optical properties
Plan and execute TVAC and thermal balance test campaigns (chamber and shroud requirements, solar and IR simulation, cold-case survival demonstration, test profiles and success criteria), then correlate models to test data
Establish the thermal design standards, margin policy, and lunar environment definitions Vast's lunar hardware will be built on, and support design reviews, drawing checks, and NASA technical deliverables
Qualification
Familiar with thermal coatingsCrewed vehicle thermal experienceAirlockAdditional Requirements
Required
Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics or a related technical discipline
6+ years of spacecraft or aerospace thermal engineering experience
Spacecraft thermal control design and analysis experience
Built and correlated thermal models for flight hardware
Experience with extreme-environment or wide-swing thermal design where both hot and cold cases were design-driving
Familiar with thermal coatings, MLI, radiators, heat pipes, thermal straps, and heater/thermostat design
Comfortable working during early architecture phases
Experience across multiple thermal analysis tools (Thermal Desktop, SINDA/FLUINT, ESATAN, or equivalent)
Preferred
TVAC and thermal balance test planning and execution experience, preferred
Lunar or planetary surface thermal experience, including diurnal survival design (thermal switches) and regolith conduction modeling
Crewed vehicle thermal experience: cabin ATCS, condensing heat exchangers, humidity control, ECLSS thermal interfaces, or touch temperature compliance for human-rated hardware
Airlock, EVA systems, or suit thermal experience, including depress/repress thermal transients
Pumped fluid loop design - working fluid selection, pump and accumulator sizing, freeze protection, and loop control
Familiarity with lunar dust effects on thermo-optical properties and dust mitigation strategies
Additional Requirements:
Willingness to work evenings and/or weekends to support critical mission milestones
