Department of Aerospace Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Instructor: Professor J. Craig Dutton

TA: Brian Jamison

News & Updates

Class is held on Thursday at 9am in 1310 Digital Computer Laboratory (DCL).

Monday office hours are held from 2:00-3:00pm.

Wednesday office hours are held 3:00-4:00pm.

For the week following Thanksgiving break, office hours will be held in the Aerospace Engineering Computer Lab (321D Talbot Lab).

Course Description

The goal of this course is to give a fun and hands-on introduction to the principles, methods, and processes of Aerospace Engineering Space Design. Students act as the design team for a small observation mission. In particular, they

Build part of a payload,
Mount it in and launch it on a model-rocket,
Predict its trajectory and analyze data using Matlab.

Syllabus

Lecture Material

Lecture 1

Lecture 2

Lecture 4 (No notes for Lecture 3 as this was presented by the rocket club (CIA).)

Lecture 5 and two extra slides (a suggested division of team responsibilities and announcement of Payload Section Construction labs).

Lecture 6 (Note that Matlab Help sessions are announced on the last slide. By the way, if you are not sure where Engineering Hall is, click here.)

Lecture 7 (Note that Matlab Help sessions are announced on the last slide. Also, click on the links in this sentence to get copies of the drag-free Trajectory Simulation .m file, the Thrust Approximation .m file, and the .data file from the launch in 2004.

Lecture 10 (No notes for Lectures 8 as it was a Saturn V video. No notes for Lecture 9 as this was a guest lecture.)

Lecture 11 was composed of instructions given by the CIA members about preparing for the launch. Also, transportation to the launch has been arranged and is listed for the first two possible launch dates here. Additionally, in case anyone is going to use their own transportation, directions to the Flatville launch site can be found here.

Lecture 12 (Announcement of data processing lab and office hours are on the last slide. Transportation for the second two possible launch dates will be the same as for the previous week.)

Lecture 13