Aerospace EngineeringUnited Kingdom
First Class Honours
BSc (Hons) Aerospace Engineering, Kingston University London, 2026.
Music and engineering, side by side
Alongside my music and everything that came with it, I pursued my higher education in Aerospace Engineering in the United Kingdom, and I recently completed my Bachelor of Science degree with First Class Honours. At the same time, my research paper on the intense heat faced by spacecraft returning from space to Earth at very high speed is now under peer review.
Chathurya Sandabarana
කලාව සහ අමතර දේවල් ඒ විදියට ගලාගෙන යන ගමන්, මගේ උසස් අධ්යාපනය සිද්ධ වුණේ එක්සත් රාජධානියේ, ගුවන් සහ අභ්යවකාශ ඉංජිනේරු විද්යාව (Aerospace Engineering) සම්බන්ධයෙන්. ළඟදී මට මගේ විද්යාවේදී උපාධිය First Class එකක් එක්ක සාර්ථකව නිම කරන්න පුළුවන් වුණා. ඒකත් එක්කම, අභ්යවකාශයේ ඉඳන් පෘථිවියට විශාල වේගයෙන් එන යානවලට වෙන භයානක තාපය ගැන මගේ research paper එක දැන් peer review වෙනවා.
Bringing spacecraft home safely
The most dangerous minutes of any space mission are the last ones. Here is the problem her research works on, in four pictures.
- Step 1
In orbit
A spacecraft circles Earth at about 28,000 km/h.
- Step 2
Hitting the air
Coming home, it slams into the atmosphere at around 25 times the speed of sound. The air in front glows.
- Step 3
Over 1,500°C
The heat shield faces temperatures hotter than molten lava, while the inside must stay safe.
- Step 4
Her work
Chathurya simulates the airflow (CFD) and the heat moving through the structure (FEA) to find materials that survive.
Research paper, under peer reviewThe intense heat faced by spacecraft returning from space to Earth at very high speed
Research areas
- Ultra-high-temperature alloys for space re-entry vehicles
- Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
- Heat-dissipation analysis integrated with finite element analysis (FEA)
Why her work matters to everyone
- Safer journeys home
Better heat shields protect astronauts and spacecraft on the most dangerous part of the trip.
- Cheaper access to space
Spacecraft that survive re-entry can be reused, which lowers the cost of launching the satellites behind GPS, weather forecasts, internet and disaster warnings.
- Everyday engineering
The same heat-resistant materials and simulation methods help make jet engines, power stations and vehicles more efficient, using less fuel.