Bhautik Amin

Moon shooter: Bhautik Amin

School/College: College of Engineering
Degree/Year: BS, bioengineering, 2018
Hometown: Breezewood, Pennsylvania
Current Job Title: Guidance, navigation and controls engineer
Current Employer: ispace US

Galaxy quest. Bhautik Amin, ENG ’18, is front and center in a new race to the moon. Around the world, governments and companies are seeking to secure technological supremacy on the lunar surface. Bhautik has worked in aerospace at Draper Labs and NASA and now ispace US, a lunar robotic exploration company on a mission to make space more accessible.

Bhautik’s parents are Indian immigrants who established themselves in a rural community in southwest Pennsylvania, where they were the only Indian family. The upbringing pushed Bhautik toward Temple, where he could become part of a diverse student body in a big city.

Temple transformation. Bhautik originally pursued pre-med but switched to bioengineering after taking part in the Fox School of Business’ Be Your Own Boss Bowl. His team formulated a business plan to use robots in agriculture, and the experience opened his mind to the exciting possibilities of applied science. He later became president of Temple Robotics, where he led a team that created a mock lunar robot for a NASA competition.

Bhautik served as the deputy attitude and control system lead and helped program a satellite called PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem).

“Everyone in the United States is working on this moon landing project, and I wanted to get involved with it. I wanted to be part of something a lot larger than me. And this type of math is really cool.”

—Bhautik Amin
Guidance, navigation and controls engineer

Doing the math. After struggling with math in high school, Bhautik worried this weakness could hinder his path in bioengineering. But he made the grade with the mentorship of a graduate student in the bioengineering program and proved himself in Professor Andrew Spence’s lab, where he built computer programs for Spence’s research in gait studies for rodents.

Blast off. After obtaining a master of science in electrical engineering and control systems from Drexel University, Bhautik went to work as a contractor with Draper, a research and development company legendary for its design of the Apollo navigation and guidance computer. He then made the jump directly to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, where he served as the deputy attitude and control system lead and helped program a satellite called PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem). Launched into orbit in February 2024, the satellite is now NASA’s most cutting-edge instrument to study climate change and other Earth systems.

Lunar landing. Looking for a new mission after three years at NASA, Bhautik joined ispace US in January 2025. He’s currently working with a team developing the guidance, navigation and control algorithms for a lunar lander to operate autonomously as it transits to the moon.