Austin Allen Carlson
GroundCTRL — Mission Control Training Platform
Real orbital mechanics, the real Deep Space Network, and a NASA-style command pipeline — wrapped in a learnable operator HUD with structured missions and an AI co-pilot. Built to teach the satellite-operations workflow nobody else makes approachable.
- ✓Dual-projection engine: a 2D ground track and a 3D Three.js globe that never desync
- ✓Five-zone operator HUD: attitude, power, propulsion, thermal, payload, comms
- ✓NASA-style stage-and-commit command pipeline with supervisor escalation
- ✓Real LEO parameters and the three actual DSN ground stations
- ✓Time-warp playback (1×–60×) through a full orbit
- ✓An in-HUD AI co-pilot for operator guidance
Technical & AI
Orbital simulation & physics
3D & real-time rendering
Full-stack engineering
AI integration
Testing & QA
Leadership & soft skills
Team leadership
Communication
Judgment
Initiative
Ownership
Evaluation report
Scored against a clear Pass/Iterate bar by the engineer who reviewed it. Summary below.
See the scorecard ↓Security review
The build checked for the holes a real company cares about, by the team's security peer.
Full report in the packDecision record
The trade-offs, the rough edges he owns, and what he'd build in a v2.
Hear it in the defense ↗Graded against the same bar every resident clears
Five dimensions, Pass or Iterate — no vanity metrics. This is the standard, and not everyone clears it.
End-to-end functionality
Core features work without errors
Stability & error handling
Runs consistently; fails gracefully
Technical implementation
Organized code; the team can explain its decisions
Team collaboration
Clear role ownership; proactive communication
Demo readiness
Runs smoothly; clear, defensible presentation
[PLACEHOLDER: drop in Austin's real per-dimension scores / overall grade here when confirmed by Tech Residency.]
Jacob Galajda
Ryan Taylor
“Austin took on an unfamiliar, genuinely hard domain and shipped a defensible product — and he can tell you exactly where the rough edges are and what he'd do next. That judgment is what separates a hire from a résumé.”
This is what a resident walks out with.
A verified profile an employer can open and trust — the build, the defense, the skills, and the sign-off, in one place. The next cohort starts August 10.