About

Teaching Activities

Overview of undergraduate and graduate curriculum focused on Astrodynamics, Satellite Geodesy, and Mission Design within the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics.

Spring Semesters

Foundational and advanced topics in orbit design and mission architecture.

ASE 379L

LEO for EO

Practical and advanced orbit design. Study oblateness, drag perturbations, and illumination geometry.

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ASE 387P.2

Mission Design

Scope, goals, architecture, launch loads, radiation, thermal environments, and lifetime prediction.

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Fall Semesters

Alternating classes covering advanced geodesy, kinematics, and celestial mechanics as per need and interest.

Satellite GeodesyASE 389P.2

This graduate class covers the modeling, space-based measurement, and applications of the Earth’s gravity field.

Forward Methods
Mathematics and physics of the geopotential and its gradients, and spherical harmonic models for the geopotential.
Observation
Discussion of observation of the geopotential using dynamical/variational methods and in situ space-based methods.
Inverse Methods
Covers the inference of mass distribution given the knowledge of the geopotential field, and its various applications.
Applications
Modeling and application of measurements pertaining to global mass flux studies and height systems.

ASE 389P.11

When Possible

Adv. Satellite Geodesy
  • Study kinematics and dynamics of displacement and Earth orientation.
  • Learn the determination of time and reference frames.
  • Explore deformations of the Earth due to tides and mass loading.
  • Study modern space geodetic applications.

ASE 388P.2

Occasionally

Celestial Mechanics
Topics Covered: N-body problem; three-body problem;restricted three-body problem;
Jacobian integral; zero-velocity curves; equilibrium points; stability; linearized solutions;
variational equations; periodic orbits; the two-body problem; variation of parameters;
Lagrange’s planetary equations; applications to near-earth and deep-space trajectories; numerical methods.