Activities and News
March 31st, 2026 - Congratulations to Danial Ghasimi on successfully defending his PhD thesis entitled “Permeability Modeling of Mars Parachute Broadcloth Materials” - Danial is the first PhD student in the RRG to defend!
March 16, 2026 - Prof. Rabinovitch, Nikk, and Miranda attend the 2026 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) and present a poster on ongoing work to update the Cryo-Erupt model for the Enceladus plume
March 4th, 2026 - Prof. Rabinovitch is awarded the 2024-2025 Academic Year Schaefer School Research Funding Award.
January 11th, 2026 - Prof. Rabinovitch, Andrew, and Danial all attend the 2026 AIAA SciTech Forum. Andrew presents on “High-Speed Shock/Droplet Aerobreakup Using a Sharp Interface Method,” and Prof. Rabinovitch gives an invited talk on “Some Recent Observations of Plume-Surface Interactions on Mars.”
December 4th, 2025 - Prof. Rabinovitch gives an invited talk on high-speed droplet aerobreakup modeling at the ONR MURI Review: Particulate and Precipitation Effects on High-speed Flight Vehicles - with Tom Schwartzentruber as the PI.
December 1st, 2025 - Prof. Rabinovitch visits UIUC for the day and gives the Aerospace AE 590 Seminar, presenting on recent research progress in the Rabinovitch Research Group!
November 26th, 2025 - The paper “A description of plume-surface interactions and non-dimensional analysis for crater formation” is accepted for publication in the journal Acta Astronautica! Gregory Shallcross, a technologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, is the first author.
November 23rd, 2025 - Andrew Sayad and Prof. Rabinovitch attend the 78th APS Division of Fluid Dynamics Annual Meeting in Houston, TX. Andrew gives a presentation on our recent shock/droplet aerobreakup modeling work entitled “Computational Modeling of Hypersonic Droplet Aerobreakup.” Our Cornell colleagues presented “A Dissipation-Free, Sharp Interface Method for High-Fidelity Compressible Multiphase Flow Simulations” with Chase Lee as the first author/presenter.
September 28th, 2025 - Danial Ghasimi and Prof. Rabinovitch attend the DSMC 2025 Conference in Santa Fe, NM, hosted by Sandia National Laboratories. Danial gives a presentation entitled “Modeling Low-Density Parachute Broadcloth Permeability for Mars Supersonic Parachute Inflations,” focusing on our recent rarefied permeability modeling for parachute materials.
September 3rd, 2025 - The paper “Noble gas fractionation predictions for high speed sampling in the upper atmosphere of Venus” is accepted for publication in Icarus! This paper summarizes the DSMC modeling for the VATMOS-SR Mission Concept!
August 27th, 2025 - NSF ACCESS writes a short article highlighting Danial’s recent AIAA Journal paper on parachute broadcloth permeability!
July 30th, 2025 - Prof. Rabinovitch gives an invited plenary talk at the 2025 ASME Fluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting (FEDSM) entitled “High-Speed Compressible Flows and Space Exploration!” The talk included discussions on modeling supersonic parachute inflations, modeling the Enceladus plume, and the VATMOS-SR mission concept!
June 26th, 2025 - The paper “Permeability Modeling of the Mars 2020 Parachute Broadcloth Material” has been accepted for publication in the AIAA Journal! Congratulations to S.Danial Ghasimi, a PhD student in the RRG, on being the first author on this paper! This work was performed in collaboration with UIUC, Stanford, JPL/Caltech, and the University of Kentucky.
May 21st, 2025 - The paper “Hierarchical kinetic analysis for development of a reduced-order model of the multi-step thermal decomposition of munitions wastewater” has been accepted for publication in Thermochimica Acta. Congratulations to Roshan Adhikari (Stevens PhD) on being the lead author of this study!
March 10th, 2025 - Prof. Rabinovitch attends The 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in the Woodlands, Texas, and presents a poster on the VATMOS-SR Mission Concept.
March 1st, 2025 - The Rabinovitch Research Group, in collaboration with the Computational ThermoFluids Lab (CTFLab) at Cornell University, is excited to start working on the ONR-funded project “Advancing understanding of and predictive modeling capabilities for high-speed shock-induced droplet aerobreakup and surface damage.” This project is supported through the ONR Hypersonic Aerothermodynamics, High-Speed Propulsion and Materials Program and has a 4-year period of performance.
Feb. 18th, 2025 - Universe Today highlights the VATMOS-SR mission concept!
Dec. 17th 2024 - The paper “Sensitivity Analysis and Validation of a Computational Framework for Supersonic Parachute Inflation Dynamics” has been published in the AIAA Journal. The supersonic parachute FSI modeling work is a Stanford/JPL/Stevens collaboration.
Nov. 27th, 2024 - The publication “Experimental and numerical investigation of inertial particles in underexpanded jets” is available open-acess in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics (JFM) - in volume 1000! This paper is the culmination of a multi-year collaboration between Stevens, the University of Michigan, and Johns Hopkins University!
Nov. 18th, 2024 - We are excited to announce that our proposal “To What Extent Does Enceladus' Plume Sample its Ocean: Insights from Conduit Flow Modeling” was recently selected for NASA funding through the Solar Systems Working (SSW) program. This work will be in collaboration with JPL and SWRI, and click here for more information!
July 29th, 2024 - Prof. Rabinovitch and students Danial Ghasimi and Andrew Sayad attend the 2024 AIAA Aviation Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Andrew presented on and lead the work in “High-Speed Multiphase Verification and Code-to-Code Comparison,” Danial presented on and lead the work in “Permeability Modeling of Mars Parachute Broadcloth Materials,” and Prof. Rabinovitch contributes to “Sensitivity Analysis and Validation of a Computational Framework for Supersonic Parachute Inflation Dynamics.”
May 29th, 2024 - Prof. Rabinovitch gives a presentation at Polytechnique Montréal as part of the Séminaires de Génie Mécanique.
May 13th, 2024 - The paper entitled “A Proposed Model for Cryovolcanic Activity on Enceladus Driven by Volatile Exsolution” has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. This paper has resulted from a multi-year collaboration with JPL (Dr. Karl Mitchell and Dr. Morgan Cable), and a special congratulations to Jonathan Scamardella (Stevens BE’2022 MEng’2023) who supported this research as a Master’s student and is a co-author on the paper!
May 10th, 2024 - Prof. Rabinovitch attends AbSciCon 2024 and presents on “The CryoErupt Model for Enceladus Plume Eruption - Viscous and Inviscid Comparisons.” This project has been an ongoing collaboration with JPL for several years.
April 12th, 2024 - Our preprint on particle-laden under-expanded sonic jets is online! This represents a multi-year collaboration between Stevens, the University of Michigan, and Johns Hopkins University.
March 14th, 2024 - Prof. Rabinovitch gives an invited talk at Johns Hopkins University for the MechE Seminar Series.
February 28th - March 1st 2024 - Prof. Rabinovitch attends the first Venus Science Coordination Group Meeting (VeSCoor) in Leesburg, Virginia.
October 3rd, 2023 - Prof. Rabinovitch is named as one of the 2024 AIAA Associate Fellows!
September 13th, 2023 - Prof. Rabinovitch gives an invited talk at Yale for the Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Seminar Series.
September 5th, 2023 - The paper “Observed High-Altitude Surface Erosion During the MSL and Mars 2020 Landings” is accepted for publication in a special Mars 2020 volume in the AIAA Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets. Congratulations to Soleil Santana on being the second author of this paper!
August 29th, 2023 - Dr. Rabinovitch attends the 20th International Planetary Probe Workshop (IPPW 2023) and presents a talk titled “The Venus Atmospheric Sample Return (VATMOS-SR) Mission Concept”
August 29th, 2023 - The paper “Scaling laws of plume-induced granular cratering” is accepted for publication in PNAS Nexus.
July 25th, 2023 - The paper “Combustion Studies of MMA/GOx for a Hybrid Rocket Motor Combustion and Flame” is accepted for publication in Combustion and Flame.
June 15th, 2023 - Dr. Rabinovitch and Andrew Sayad attend the 2023 AIAA Aviation Forum and Exposition in San Diego, CA. Andrew gives his first conference talk entitled “Numerical Modeling of Shock Induced Aerobreakup of a Droplet at High Reynolds and Weber Number.”
May 8th, 2023 - Dr. Rabinovitch is selected as one of the NASA Venus Science Coordination Group Members (VeSCoor)
March 13th, 2023 - Dr. Rabinovitch and Jonathan Scamardella attend the 2023 LPSC meeting in person, and Asim Qureshi attends virtually. The Rabinovitch Research Group presented on Enceladus conduit modeling and had a poster on Mercury landing site analysis!
March 6th, 2023 - The 2023 IEEE Aerospace Conference paper “Enceladus Vent Explorer Mission Architecture Trade Study” is selected for the Best Paper in Track Award (Track 2: Space Missions, Systems and Architecture")
February 13th, 2023 - Patent # 11,578,682 “SmallSat Hybrid Propulsion System” is issued!
February 21st, 2023 - Editor’s highlight in JGR - Planets “Dust on Mars? The Answer, My Friend, is Blowin’ in the Wind”
January 31st, 2023 - Stevens media features some of the Mars Helicopter dust analysis work!
January 23rd, 2023 - Danial Ghasimi and Prof. Rabinovitch attend the 2023 AIAA SciTech conference, and Danial presents his first conference paper titled “Thin Surface Permeability Modeling for Mars Supersonic Parachute Inflations” - great job Danial!
November 29, 2022 - The paper “Lifting and transport of Martian dust by the Ingenuity helicopter rotor downwash as observed by high-speed imaging from the Perseverance rover” is accepted for publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets
July 8, 2022 - Prof. Rabinovitch gives a keynote lecture at the 32nd International Symposium on Rarefied Gas Dynamics (RGD32) in Seoul, South Korea titled “A (very) Quick Overview of NASA Planetary Exploration Missions and the VATMOS-SR Mission Concept.” A pre-recorded version of this lecture can be found here.
June 27, 2022 - Prof. Rabinovitch and Soleil Santana attend the 2022 AIAA Aviation Forum in Chicago, IL.
May 26, 2022 - The NASA Phase I SBIR proposal “Reconfigurable Plenoptic Objective for Snapshot Multimodal Flow Diagnostics” was selected for funding! Dr. Liska from Nanohmics is the PI, and Prof. Rabinovitch is the academic PI, and Prof. Parziale is the academic Co-I.
May 18, 2022 - Prof. Rabinovitch presents the paper “ Update: Modeling Supersonic Parachute Inflations for Mars Spacecraft” at the 26th AIAA Aerodynamic Decelerator Systems Technology Conference in Toulouse, France. This work is a collaboration with JPL and Professor Farhat’s research group (FRG) at Stanford.
May 10, 2022 - The paper “Measurement of Parachute Canopy Textile Deformation using Mechanically Invisible Stretchable Lightguides” is accepted for publication in the journal Advanced Materials Technologies.
May 9-13, 2022 - Prof. Rabinovitch participates in the Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) workshop Venus In Situ Sample Capture Mission - Part II.
May 6th, 2022 - Soleil Santana is selected for the AIAA AVIATION Forum Diversity Scholars Program, and will be attending the upcoming 2022 AVIATION Forum in Chicago. Congratulations Soleil!
April 28, 2022 - Prof. Rabinovitch gives a guest lecture for the Univ. of Maryland Aerospace Department Seminar.
March 29, 2022 - The paper “A fast and robust surface sample acquisition system for a Venus lander” which describes the design and testing of a Venus drill and sampling system is accepted and published in the journal Planetary and Space Science.
February 28, 2022 - Prof. Rabinovitch gives a Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering Seminar at Stevens titled “High-speed Compressible Flows and Space Exploration!”
February 18, 2022 - JPL VITAL Ventilator wins two gold medals at the Anthem Rewards.
January 20, 2022 - Stevens press release: “Stevens Professor Uses Fluid Mechanics Modeling to Explore Space”
September 10th, 2021 - Caltech Division of Engineering and Applied Science (EAS) releases a Steps Forward spotlight video on the CAST-JPL Collaboration: Wind Tunnel Design for Testing Ingenuity.
August 11th, 2021 - Prof. Rabinovitch chats with Kurt Siegelin from news12 New Jersey about landing on Venus!
August 11th, 2021 - Prof. Rabinovitch gives an invited Keynote talk at the virtual ASME Fluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting (FEDSM 2021) entitled “Modeling Supersonic Parachute Inflations and Plume-Surface Interactions for Landing Spacecraft on Mars.”
July 29th, 2021 - Stevens press release about Venus exploration!
July 25th, 2021 - The paper “Low-Density Multi-Fan Wind Tunnel Design and Testing for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter,” which describes a JPL/Caltech collaboration to develop a low-speed low-density wind tunnel at JPL to test Ingenuity (the Mars Helicopter), is accepted for publication in Experiments in Fluids!
July 16th, 2021 - Soleil, Ava, and Maria all successfully present their summer research at the ME 2021 SURP Virtual Summer Conference! Maria Ortiz wins second place in the research competition - with voting from the ME Faculty and all other student researchers. Congratulations to Maria, Ava, and Soleil for their great work, effort, and enthusiasm this summer!
June 14th, 2021 - Prof. Rabinovitch starts at JPL as a Faculty Fellow in the JPL Faculty Research Program (JFRP) in 347B - the Robotic Vehicles & Manipulators Group.
May 24th, 2021 - The group welcomes three Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Fellows for the summer! Soleil Santana and Ava Steneck will be focusing on combustion modeling for Hybrid SmallSat Motors and Maria Ortiz will be investigating the performance of the Mars 2020 supersonic disk-gap-band parachute!
May 5th, 2021 - The lab receives a grant from the NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) for the project “Verification and Validation of High-Fidelity Plume Surface Interaction Simulations.”
April 22nd, 2021 - Caltech press release on developing a low-speed low-density wind tunnel at JPL to test Ingenuity (the Mars Helicopter)
March 9th, 2021 - Prof. Rabinovitch and Dr. Stack Morgan have their paper, “Characterizing landing site safety on Venus using Venera panoramas and Magellan radar properties” accepted for publication in Icarus. Quick visual summary here.
February 18th, 2021 - Perseverance successfully lands on Mars! For more information on the mission, please go to https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/. A brief Q&A with Prof. Rabinovitch can be found here: https://www.stevens.edu/news/stevens-professors-contributions-landing-mars-rover-perseverance-qa-jason-rabinovitch
January 15th, 2021 - Prof. Rabinovitch starts at Stevens in the Department of Mechanical Engineering!
Congratulations to Danial Ghasimi on successfully defending his PhD thesis entitled “Permeability Modeling of Mars Parachute Broadcloth Materials” on March 31st, 2026!
The Rabinovitch Research Group attends LPSC 2026 and presents a poster on updates to the Cryo-Erupt model on 3/19/2026!
Prof. Rabinovitch being awarded the AY 24/25 Scaefer School Research Funding Award (Tenure-Track) on 3/4/2026.
Prof. Rabinovitch supporting the inspection of the Mars 2020 Cruise Stage Solar Array during acoustic testing at JPL. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL, California Institute of Technology.