Astronautics and Space Systems

AIAA SPACE 2007 Conference & Exposition, 2007

Alarming warnings of the forthcoming shortfalls in aerospace engineering workforce have become common. At the same time, the space segment of the industry continues to grow. The space industry is critically important for national security and for economic competitiveness. Non-space faculty traditionally dominate aerospace engineering departments in universities, with changes in their focus coming at a glacial pace. The time has come for separate academic departments in astronautical engineering. To meet the industrial demand, the University of Southern California established such a new academic unit-Astronautics and Space Technology Division-three years ago in the Viterbi School of Engineering. The current status of the Division, its accomplishments and challenges are reviewed.

Advances in Space Research, 2004

The Astronautics Program (http://astronautics.usc.edu) of the University of Southern California (USC) offers a full set of undergraduate and graduate degree programs in Aerospace Engineering with emphasis in Astronautics. The Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degree programs in Astronautics combine basic science and engineering classes with specialized classes in space technology. The Certificate in Astronautics targets practicing engineers and scientists who enter space-related fields and/or who want to obtain training in specific space-related areas. Many specialized graduate classes are taught by adjunct faculty working at the leading space companies. The Master of Science degree and Certificate are available entirely through the USC Distance Education Network (DEN). Today, the Internet allows us to reach students anywhere in the world through webcasting. The majority of our graduate students, as well as those pursuing the Certificate, work full time as engineers in the space industry and government research and development centers while earning their degrees. The new world of distance learning presents new challenges and opens new opportunities. Distance learning, and particularly the introduction of webcasting, transform the organization of the graduate program and class delivery. We describe in detail the programÕs academic focus, student reach, and structure of program components. Program development is illustrated by the student enrollment dynamics and related industrial trends; the lessons learned emphasize the importance of feedback from the students and from the space industry.

A quick view of aerospace systems design process and how this intersects with systems engineering.

Dynamics of Long-Life Assets, 2017

This chapter describes the Space cluster use case using the innovative Space Tug project as an example. It provides an overview of the objectives (customer in the loop, quicker technical response) and related methods to support foreseen improvements through a dedicated toolchain. The IT infrastructure used for the demonstration is used as an enabling and demonstrative system with a focus on modelling and collaboration aspects, as outlined in Chapter "Extending the System Model", on the flow of information, and on tool infrastructure and project costs. Descriptions of the developed tools are as follows: • A web-based toolchain that includes functional analysis, discipline analysis, 3D modelling and virtual reality for project team collaboration. • A workflow manager for collaboration between different companies. • Small devices called 'probes' to ensure security and data protection in intercompany collaboration. • A configurable customer front-end to ensure that the customer remains informed.

2005

Engineering since 1988 areas: real time systems, distributed systems, industrial systems Manager of AAU Student Satellite Program Morten Bisgaard stud Ph.D. M Sc. areas: distributed systems, advanced control, autonomous systems member of coreteam for CubeSat Member of Management group for AAUSAT II Lars Alminde stud Ph.D. M Sc. areas: distributed systems, advanced control, autonomous systems member of coreteam for CubeSat Member of Management group for AAUSAT II Assistent Prof PhD july 2005 Dan Bhanderi areas: distributed systems, advanced control, autonomous systems Member of Management group for AAUSAT II

2015

Prolonged human presence in space has been studied extensively only in Earth orbiting space stations. Manned missions beyond Earth’s orbit, require addressing further challenges: e.g. distances exclude effective tele-operation; travel times, distances and the absence of safe abort and return options add physiological stress; travel times require novel closed-cycle life support systems; robotic extrave-hicular activities require the development of hardware for semiautonomous exploratory, inspection and maintenance tasks, partly tele-controlled by human operators inside the spacecraft. These few exam-ples suggest that if the endeavour of interplanetary manned space flight has to become a realistic future possibility, the technological support to astronauts will need to be substantially developed. This paper critically reviews the current scientific maturity of a number of diverse and sometime controversial visions of possible solutions, and at the same time attempts to provide an over...

Esa Bulletin-european Space Agency, 2006

Biological systems represent millions of years of trial-and-error learning through natural selection according to the most stringent of metrics: survival. "Biomimetics" may be defined as the practice of "reverse engineering" ideas and concepts from nature and implementing them in a field of technology. This reverse engineering has recently attracted significant research due to an increasing realisation that many of the

SpaceOps 2012 Conference, 2012

There is a big semantic "gap" between textual information spread into the many documents (space system manuals, etc.) used in operations and what is really produced (software, hardware, procedures, spacecraft database, etc.) and used for validation (simulators, test beds, failure analysis tools, etc.). Operational user is "taken between" a huge amount of documentation and the very low level information spread into many different specialized formalisms and tools. It is very difficult to get quickly the information necessary to understand how the system works, which is a key point for many operation tasks like the design of operational procedures, alarm or error analysis, etc. A formalized model that captures the system knowledge would not only help designers and operators to catch it much more efficiently rather than in documents, but this may also be used by the computer to ease the many verification and validation tasks to be done, and may enable to keep a more efficient traceability with requirements during the whole system life-cycle. Some attempts to go towards this formalized, global and centralized system view have already been made, for instance with the "Space System Model" from the European ECSS-E-ST-70-31 standard. However, it needs to be much more enriched to take into account all the different views of the system and obtain all the expected benefits. In this paper, we present the results of a CNES R&T study called EGPO done with the help of ATOS Company to go further in this direction, initiating a richer view of the space system, and formalizing it with a customization of the SysML standard to the space domain.

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings

The Student Space Systems Fabrication Laboratory (S3FL) is a student-led organization dedicated to providing students with practical space systems design and fabrication experience not readily available through the usual academic curriculum. S3FL's approach is to enhance education by coupling classroom knowledge with practicum experience involving real engineering design, analysis, test, fabrication, integration, and operation of actual flight vehicles and space payloads. Each year, S3FL involves over a hundred undergraduate and graduate students in activities ranging from balloon payloads to microgravity experiments to nanosatellites. By participating in the end-to-end development of complete space systems, students acquire knowledge and expertise that would otherwise take years of postgraduate experience to be achieved.

Acta Astronautica, 2008

SpaceTech is a postgraduate program geared primarily for mid-career space professionals seeking to gain or improve their expertise in space systems engineering and in business engineering. SpaceTech provides a lifelong impact on its participants by broadening their capabilities, encouraging systematic "end-to-end" thinking and preparing them for any technical or businessrelated engineering challenges they may encounter. This flexible 1-year program offers high competency gain and increased business skills. It is held in attractive locations in a flexible, multi-cultural environment. SpaceTech is a highly effective master's program certified by the esteemed Technical University of Delft (TUD), Netherlands. SpaceTech provides expert instructors who place no barriers between themselves and participants. The program combines innovative and flexible new approaches with time-tested methods to give participants the skills required for future missions and new business, while allowing participants to meet their work commitments at the same time as they study for their master's degree. The SpaceTech program is conducted in separate sessions, generally each of 2-week duration, separated by periods of some 6-8 weeks, during which time participants may return to their normal jobs. It also includes introductory online course material that the participants can study at their leisure. The first session is held at the TUD, with subsequent sessions held at strategic space agency locations. By participating at two or more of these sessions, attendees can earn certificates of satisfactory completion from TU Delft. By participating in all of the sessions, as well as taking part in the companion Central Case Project (CCP), participants earn an accredited and highly respected master's degree in Space Systems Engineering from the TUD. Seven distinct SpaceTech modules are provided during these sessions: Space Mission Analysis and Design, Systems Engineering, Business Engineering, Interpersonal Skills, Telecommunications, Earth Observation and Navigation. A group CCP, a major asset of this unique program, is a focused project, aimed at the formation of a credible virtual commercial space-related business. Participants exercise space systems engineering fundamentals as well as marketing and business engineering tools, with the goal of creating a financially viable business opportunity. They then present the result, in the form of an unsolicited proposal to potential investors, as well as a varied group of engineers, managers and executives from the space community. During the CCP, participants learn the ties between mission and system design and the potential return to investors. They develop an instinct for the technical concepts and which of the parameters to adjust to make their newly conceived business more effective and profitable.