National Intern Day Spotlight: Avinash Karthik

From Idea to Orbit: A Fireside Chat with Avinash Karthik 

This past summer, high school senior Avinash Karthik completed an internship with Antaris. What began as a personal idea for a payload design evolved into a real proof-of-concept project addressing one of spaceflight’s toughest human-health challenges. We sat down with Avinash to hear more about his journey. 

What first attracted you to want to work at Antaris? 

I actually started with my own payload design. I thought it would be interesting to see if I could bring it to life in a real-world setting. When the opportunity at Antaris came up, it felt like the right place to access the resources and mentorship I needed to develop the concept. 

Tell me about that project—what problem were you trying to solve? 

Astronauts lose muscle, bone density, and even cognitive strength in zero gravity. My idea was a proof of concept to use rotation and centrifugal force to simulate gravity’s effects. If you can apply that force to the body—even for a limited part of the day—you could help astronauts maintain their health in space. 

How did you move from idea to building actual hardware? 

I started with rough CAD designs and worked with mentors like Mr. Spencer and Mr. Theiv to refine them. At a previous internship I built a software simulation, and at Antaris I shifted into hardware—writing communication software, testing boards, and eventually manufacturing and assembling the parts. We tested everything component by component before putting the full system together. 

And what did those tests show? 

The concept worked. Even though Earth’s gravity interfered a bit, our tests with a metal ball showed that the centrifugal force was being applied as intended. I think the results will be even stronger in a true zero-gravity environment. 

What was it like working across teams in the U.S. and India? 

At first I worked remotely with Mr. Spencer while I was still in California. Later I went to India to work directly in the lab. The time zones didn’t matter much since I adjusted depending on where I was. The bigger takeaway was how quickly collaboration across continents helped move the project from CAD to working hardware. 

What did you learn about space through this internship that surprised you? 

That it’s not enough to just design something that works. Every part that goes into space has to pass vibration testing, thermal testing, and survive extreme conditions. The engineering is just the start—there’s a huge layer of validation and reliability testing I hadn’t fully appreciated before. 

Closing Thoughts 

Avinash’s journey is a reminder that space innovation doesn’t just happen in big labs or universities—it can start with a high schooler’s idea sketched in CAD. With persistence, mentorship, and the right platform, he turned that idea into hardware and data. As he looks ahead to studying computer science in college, Avinash has already proven that passion and initiative can launch extraordinary opportunities.

Learn more about Avinash’s project at his personal website: https://aquilaspace.org/.