Space mission design and operations

Summary

The goal of this course is to give students the practical skills to carry out a project linked to the development of space technologies. The subject of the project is defined after discussion with teachers/supervisors. Projects will be carried out within the framework of the EPFL Space Center.

Content

Keywords

• Orbital mechanics
• Spacecraft operations
• Space environment
• Space exploration

Learning Prerequisites

Required courses

• Bachelor level courses in physics, vector analysis, and calculus

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

• Integrate the basics of space project management (project phases and task planning, organization of communication within a project, deadlines, deliverables).
• Perform and organize a literature review.
• Develop their personal communication skills (how to make a presentation, write a technical report).
• Organize autonomously their working time and manage their schedule.
• Take into consideration the development practices of space technologies used by the European Space Agency (ESA).
• Develop their skills and knowledge in a specific domain of space technologies (depending on the topic).
• Apply the learning outcomes from the courses of the space technology minor into a more concrete project (when applicable).

Transversal skills

• Communicate effectively with professionals from other disciplines.
• Communicate effectively, being understood, including across different languages and cultures.

Teaching methods

Ex cathedra and exercices supervised in classroom

Expected student activities

Each student planning to take the Minor can select a project equivalent to 12 ETCS. A list of projects offered by the  EPFL Space Center is available here: https://espace.epfl.ch/education/student-projects/
Subjects could also be proposed by an EPFL lab or the students themselves (as long as the project is space related).
Note that if you are proposing your own project, it needs to be supervised by a lab at EPFL. The Minor project cannot be done within an external entity. It is possible to set up a co-supervision between the EPFL Space Center and another lab at EPFL.

It is highly recommended to take the project after the main classes, i.e. in the third semester of Master. Once the title of the project has been selected and agreed with project supervisors, the student needs to register for the project on IS-Academia.

If you choose to do your project in an EPFL lab and are unsure how to register on IS-Academia, please contact the EPFL Space Center via this form: https://espace.epfl.ch/education/epfl-minor-in-space-technologies/#contact-minor

Resources

Bibliography

Will be provided in the course introduction

A few exemples of interesting books available from the library:

• Space mission analysis and design
• Orbital Mechanics and Astrodynamics: Techniques and Tools for Space Missions

Ressources en bibliothèque

• Space Mission analysis and Design / Larson
• Orbital Mechanics and Astrodynamics: Techniques and Tools for Space Missions / Hintz

Notes/Handbook

Course notes available before each course on Moodle

Moodle Link

• https://go.epfl.ch/EE-585