AE4870 Spacecraft Design and Integration I

Principles of spacecraft design considerations, spacecraft configurations, design of spacecraft subsystems, interdependency of designs of spacecraft subsystems, launch vehicles, mass power estimation, and trade-offs between performance, cost, and reliability. The emphasis is on military geosynchronous communications satellites. The course includes an individual design project.

Prerequisite

SS3861, AE3804, AE3840, and AE3851; or by consent of instructor

Lecture Hours

2

Lab Hours

4

Course Learning Outcomes

At the completion of the course students will be able to: 

• Describe spacecraft configurations and assess the impact of spacecraft orbit, mission, and launch vehicle. 
• Estimate mass and power requirements for a spacecraft. 
• Describe launch vehicles and their performance. 
• Explain orbit elements, delta V required for station-keeping and station repositioning maneuvers, eclipses, and launch windows. 
• Explain principles of solar arrays, state-of-art of solar arrays, batteries, power conditioning electronics, and design of electric power sub-system. 
• Explain the principles of spin-stabilization, gravity gradient and three-axis reaction wheels system and the preliminary design of attitude control subsystem, sensors, and the estimation of disturbance torques.