Spacecraft
System
Design

ASTE 520

Department of Astronautical Engineering (ASTE)
Viterbi School of Engineering (VSOE)
University of Southern California (USC)

Master of Science in Astronautical Engineering (MS ASTE)

MS ASTE - Frequently asked questions

MS ASTE - schedule of courses      Program history

USC Master of Science in Astronautical Engineering: Overview (53 min)

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who should take course ASTE 520 Spacecraft Design 

MS ASTE Program Update 

Applying ASTE-520:  Satllite Launch by North Korea in 2012

Advanced degrees in astronautical engineering for the space industry,
Acta Astronautica, 2014

ASTE 520 in Fall 2014 semester:
all course materials will be posted
on the class web site at DEN/GAPP in mid August.

In the meantime, one can get some information about the course
from a recent (Spring 2013) first (introductory) lecture :
 ASTE 520 – first lecture and detailed information

In 2014–2015 academic year, ASTE520 Spacecraft Design
is offered in the fall 2014 semester (Monday, 6:40–9:20 pm);
the course is not offered in the spring 2015  semester.
Class enrollement is unlimited.

Note that shedules do change. 
Always check the course schedule with ASTE Student Advisor .

Course webcasts.  All lectures are available as webcasts through VSOE's Distance Education Network DEN to all (on-campus and remote) students enrolled in the course during the entire semester.

PC or Mac. DEN streams course videos using Microsoft Windows media encoders and servers. While streaming windows media files are supported by both the latest Mac and PC operating systems, using a Windows based system will usually provide a better experience. Additionally, DEN has recently added video download capabilities using Microsoft’s Digital Rights Management supporting Windows operating systems.

ASTE520 is a popular graduate course.
Almost 1100 students took the course during the last 10 years from 2004-2013;
more than 1400 students took the course since 1996.  

Instructor:    Mike Gruntman

Mike Gruntman's web site on
Astronautics and Spacecraft Design

Recommended books (textbooks and monographs)
on Astronautics, Spacecraft Design, and Spacecraft Systems

• Mike's books

• Mike's videos

• Mike's Short courses 

For fun:      Sputnik 1        Explorer 1        Vanguard 1

Special lecture (free download) –  1 hr 10 min
The Road to Space. The First Thousand Years.

Fifty years ago in October of 1957, the first artificial satellite of the Earth was launched into space.  The lecture focuses on the history of the events that led us to the space age. 

Special lecture (webcast):
Space: From Firecrackers to Interstellar Flight

Part 1. The First Thousand Years (webcast 87 min);  Part 2.  Space in 21st Century (webcast 84 min)

Socks for the First Cosmonaut of Planet Earth 

Video clips on satellite orbits and space
                    list of videos (pdf) 

About Course ASTE 520

• ASTE 520 Spacecraft Design  is usually taken by astronautical engineering and other science (physics, astronomy, mathematics) and engineering (electrical, mechanical, aerospace, chemical, systems, computer, and other) graduate students and sometimes senior level undergraduate students.

•  This class is required for the degree Master of Science in Astronautical Engineering (code ASTE).

• The course offers a broad introduction to fundamentals of space systems, main spacecraft subsystems, and their interactions.

• This class is a must for science and engineering students, regardless of their major, considering careers in the space industry and government space research and development centers.

• This is a very popular class, perhaps the largest graduate class on fundamentals of space systems in the United States. More than 1100 graduate students took this class during the last 10 years from 2003-2013.

• Instructor: Professor Mike Gruntman

• Prior to 2008, the course was offered once a year. In academic years 2008–2013 the course was offered in both semesters, in the fall and spring. Beginning with 2013 academic year, I ofer the course - unlimited enrollment - only in the fall. Always check the class schedule with ASTE Student Advisor .

• ASTE 520 is webcast and available through the USC Distance Education Network (DEN).  DEN classes are taken by students pursuing graduate degrees (especially Master of Science) anywhere in the United States. In 2005–2013, students from 10–14 States of the United States enrolled each year in ASTE 520.

• Many our students work full time in major space companies and space government research and development centers (Aerospace Corporation, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Lockheed-Martin, Northrop-Grumman, Raytheon, Boeing, UT, Space and Missiles Systems Center, etc.), in small companies, or are on active duty in the armed forces. There is growing enrollment into the astronautical engineering program of students not affiliated with major companies (on an individual basis).

• More information on the history, focus, and organization of the USC Astronautics program

• To get more information on ASTE–520, other astronautics-related courses, USC graduate and undergraduate programs in Astronautical Engineering , and on DEN and contact information, please consult MS ASTE  and Frequently asked questions

ASTE 520 Spacecraft System Design

Course Outline (see also a recent first lecture of the course for details)

Organization of the class.

History of space exploration.

Univere. Galaxy. solar system. Coordinate systems.

Space environment. Hardness.

Space mission geometry; astrodynamics.

Orbit design. Basic orbits, perturbations, delta-V.

Spacecraft and mission design overview. Operations, launching facilities. Reliability.

Guidance, navigation and control; attitude determination; reaction control system. Global Positioning System.

Propulsion. Launch systems.

Introduction to communications; antennas, communication link;TT & C; data handling.

Electric power subsystem.

Thermal control.

Structures and mechanisms.

Only for students enrolled in Mike's ASTE 520

REQUIRED CLASS NOTES

Class Notes (800+ pages) are essential and mandatory to the course.

The notes are available for download at DEN's web site of ASTE520 in the beginning of the semester.

Start with reading the "readme.pdf" file for instructions.

Usually, the full set of notes is ready before the first class meeting. The full set of homework assignments will also be available by that time, or – at the latest – by the end of the first month of the semester.

To access the class web site at DEN, all students enrolled in the class (including all on-campus students) must register with DEN.

Note that the notes are protected with a password that can be obtained only from the instructor (see Section 00, Part 2; no password protection).

Required text

Space Mission Engineering: The New SMAD ,
eds. J. R. Wertz, D.F. Everett, and J.J. Puschell, Microcosm, 2011.

or

Space Mission Analysis and Design , ed. W.J. Larson and J.R. Wertz,
Kluwer Academic Publishers and Microcosm, 3rd Edition.

The students enrolled in ASTE520 may recieve special discount when buy this book
directly from the publisher at http://astrobooks.com
(you need to contact - call by telephone - them directly
and tell that you are enrolled in Mike Gruntman's ASTE520). 

Many other textbooks and monographs – recommended by the instructor – on
various aspects of astronautics and space technology  are listed at
http://astronauticsnow.com/AstroBooks/index.html

 

Homework

There are 30–36 homework assignments.  Late homework is graded with grades reduced by a 50% factor.

Grading policy for ASTE 520 (subject to change)

40% Midterm
40% Final
20% Homework

Awarded (annual) Master's degrees in Astronautical Engineering

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