Introduction to Astronautics

4 units · Undergraduate upper division (100-199)

Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Enforced requisite: course 102. Recommended: course 82. Spaceflight, including two-body and three-body problem, Kepler laws, and Keplerian orbits. Ground track and taxonomy of common orbits. Orbital and transfer maneuvers, patched conics, perturbation theory, low-thrust trajectories, spacecraft pointing, and spacecraft attitude control. Space mission design, space environment, rendezvous, reentry, and launch. Letter grading.