MIT OpenCourseWare: New Courses in Aeronautics and Astronautics

16.50 Introduction to Propulsion Systems (MIT)

Martinez-Sanchez, Manuel — 2013-02-04T09:59:08+05:00

This course presents aerospace propulsive devices as systems, with functional requirements and engineering and environmental limitations along with requirements and limitations that constrain design choices. Both air-breathing and rocket engines are covered, at a level which enables rational integration of the propulsive system into an overall vehicle design. Mission analysis, fundamental performance relations, and exemplary design solutions are presented.

16.400 Human Factors Engineering (MIT)

Young, Laurence R. — 2013-01-04T16:50:44+05:00

This course is designed to provide both undergraduate and graduate students with a fundamental understanding of human factors that must be taken into account in the design and engineering of complex aviation and space systems. The primary focus is the derivation of human engineering design criteria from sensory, motor, and cognitive sources to include principles of displays, controls and ergonomics, manual control, the nature of human error, basic experimental design, and human-computer interaction in supervisory control settings. Undergraduate students will demonstrate proficiency through aviation accident case presentations, quizzes, homework assignments, and hands-on projects. Graduate students will complete all the undergraduate assignments; however, they are expected to complete a research-oriented project with a final written report and an oral presentation.

16.430J Sensory-Neural Systems: Spatial Orientation from End Organs to Behavior and Adaptation (MIT)

Oman, Charles M. — 2012-12-13T15:02:10+05:00

This course introduces sensory systems and multi-sensory fusion using the vestibular and spatial orientation systems as a model. Topics range from end organ dynamics to neural responses, to sensory integration, to behavior, and adaptation, with particular application to balance, posture and locomotion under normal gravity and space conditions. Depending upon the background and interests of the students, advanced term project topics might include motion sickness, astronaut adaptation, artificial gravity, lunar surface locomotion, vestibulo-cardiovascular responses, vestibular neural prostheses, or other topics of interest.

16.682 Technology in Transportation (MIT)

Sarma, Sanjay — 2012-06-04T11:55:59+05:00

This course provides an introduction to the transportation industry's major technical challenges and considerations. For upper level undergraduates interested in learning about the transportation field in a broad but quantitative manner. Topics include road vehicle engineering, internal combustion engines, batteries and motors, electric and hybrid powertrains, urban and high speed rail transportation, water vessels, aircraft types and aerodynamics, radar, navigation, GPS, GIS. Students will complete a project on a subject of their choosing.

16.459 Bioengineering Journal Article Seminar (MIT)

Oman, Charles M. — 2012-05-08T16:37:53+05:00

Each term, the class selects a new set of professional journal articles on bioengineering topics of current research interest. Some papers are chosen because of particular content, others are selected because they illustrate important points of methodology. Each week, one student leads the discussion, evaluating the strengths, weaknesses, and importance of each paper. Subject may be repeated for credit a maximum of four terms. Letter grade given in the last term applies to all accumulated units of 16.459.

16.30 Feedback Control Systems (MIT)

How, Jonathan P. — 2012-01-05T14:54:23+05:00

This course will teach fundamentals of control design and analysis using state-space methods. This includes both the practical and theoretical aspects of the topic. By the end of the course, you should be able to design controllers using state-space methods and evaluate whether these controllers are robust to some types of modeling errors and nonlinearities. You will learn to: Design controllers using state-space methods and analyze using classical tools. Understand impact of implementation issues (nonlinearity, delay). Indicate the robustness of your control design. Linearize a nonlinear system, and analyze stability.

16.863J System Safety (MIT)

Leveson, Nancy — 2012-01-05T00:09:09+05:00

The goal of 16.863J is to teach basic principles of system safety, including accident analysis, hazard analysis, design for safety, human factors and safety, controlling safety during operations, and management of safety critical projects and systems. While you will learn what is currently done today, you will also learn new techniques that are proving to be more powerful and effective than the traditional safety engineering approaches.

16.410 Principles of Autonomy and Decision Making (MIT)

Williams, Brian — 2011-12-06T09:18:08+05:00

This course surveys a variety of reasoning, optimization and decision making methodologies for creating highly autonomous systems and decision support aids. The focus is on principles, algorithms, and their application, taken from the disciplines of artificial intelligence and operations research. Reasoning paradigms include logic and deduction, heuristic and constraint-based search, model-based reasoning, planning and execution, and machine learning. Optimization paradigms include linear programming, integer programming, and dynamic programming. Decision-making paradigms include decision theoretic planning, and Markov decision processes.

16.07 Dynamics (MIT)

Widnall, Sheila — 2010-06-29T14:42:14+05:00

This course covers the fundamentals of Newtonian mechanics, including kinematics, motion relative to accelerated reference frames, work and energy, impulse and momentum, 2D and 3D rigid body dynamics. The course pays special attention to applications in aerospace engineering including introductory topics in orbital mechanics, flight dynamics, inertial navigation and attitude dynamics. By the end of the semester, students should be able to construct idealized (particle and rigid body) dynamical models and predict model response to applied forces using Newtonian mechanics.

16.842 Fundamentals of Systems Engineering (MIT)

de Weck, Olivier — 2010-06-28T14:44:19+05:00

This course introduces the principles and methods of Systems Engineering. Lectures follow the "V"-model of Systems Engineering, including needs identification, requirements formulation, concept generation and selection, trade studies, preliminary and detailed design, component and subsystem test and integration as well as functional testing and delivery and operations. Additional concepts such as tradeoffs between performance, cost and system operability will be discussed. Systems Engineering standards and selected journal articles serve as a basis for readings, and individual homework assignments will apply the concepts from class. Both aeronautical and astronautical applications are covered. The class serves as preparation for the systems field exam in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

16.A47 The Engineer of 2020 (MIT)

Hastings, Daniel — 2010-05-05T08:51:09+05:00

Numerous recent studies have shown that the U.S. has relatively low percentages of students who enter science and engineering and a high drop-out rate. Some other countries are producing many more scientists and engineers per capita than the U.S. What does this mean for the future of the U.S. and the global economy? In this readings and discussion-based seminar you will meet weekly with the Dean of Undergraduate Education to explore the kind of education MIT and other institutions are and should be giving. Based on data from National Academy and other reports, along with what pundits have been saying, we'll see if we can decide how much the U.S. may or may not be at risk.

16.36 Communication Systems Engineering (MIT)

Modiano, Eytan — 2009-12-07T14:11:29+05:00

This course will cover fundamentals of digital communications and networking. We will study the basics of information theory, sampling and quantization, coding, modulation, signal detection and system performance in the presence of noise. The study of data networking will include multiple access, reliable packet transmission, routing and protocols of the internet. The concepts taught in class will be discussed in the context of aerospace communication systems: aircraft communications, satellite communications, and deep space communications.

16.982 Bio-Inspired Structures (MIT)

Daniel, Leo — 2009-10-06T20:15:31+05:00

This course is offered for graduate students who are interested in the interdisciplinary study of bio-inspired structures. The intent is to introduce students to newly inspired modern advanced structures and their applications. It aims to link traditional advanced composites to bio-inspired structures and to discuss their generic properties. A link between materials design, strength and structural behavior at different levels (material, element, structural and system levels) is made. For each level, various concepts will be introduced. The importance of structural, dynamic, thermodynamic and kinetic theories related to such processing is highlighted. The pedagogy is based on active learning and a balance of guest lectures and hands-on activities.

16.346 Astrodynamics (MIT)

Battin, Richard — 2009-07-13T14:57:24+05:00

This course covers the fundamentals of astrodynamics, focusing on the two-body orbital initial-value and boundary-value problems with applications to space vehicle navigation and guidance for lunar and planetary missions, including both powered flight and midcourse maneuvers. Other topics include celestial mechanics, Kepler's problem, Lambert's problem, orbit determination, multi-body methods, mission planning, and recursive algorithms for space navigation. Selected applications from the Apollo, Space Shuttle, and Mars exploration programs are also discussed.

16.660 Introduction to Lean Six Sigma Methods (MIT)

Murman, Earll — 2009-07-10T16:12:11+05:00

This course introduces the fundamental Lean Six Sigma principles that underlay modern continuous improvement approaches for industry, government and other organizations. Lean emerged from the Japanese automotive industry, particularly Toyota, and is focused on the creation of value through the relentless elimination of waste. Six Sigma is a quality system developed at Motorola which focuses on elimination of variation from all processes. The basic principles have been applied to a wide range of organizations and sectors to improve quality, productivity, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, time-to-market and financial performance. This course is offered during the Independent Activities Period (IAP), which is a special 4-week term at MIT that runs from the first week of January until the end of the month.

16.323 Principles of Optimal Control (MIT)

How, Jonathan P. — 2009-01-08T21:19:25+05:00

This course studies basic optimization and the principles of optimal control. It considers deterministic and stochastic problems for both discrete and continuous systems. The course covers solution methods including numerical search algorithms, model predictive control, dynamic programming, variational calculus, and approaches based on Pontryagin's maximum principle, and it includes many examples and applications of the theory.

16.89J Space Systems Engineering (MIT)

Crawley, Edward — 2008-07-17T16:06:15+05:00

In 16.89 / ESD.352 the students will first be asked to understand the key challenges in designing ground and space telescopes, the stakeholder structure and value flows, and the particular pros and cons of the proposed project. The first half of the class will concentrate on performing a thorough architectural analysis of the key astrophysical, engineering, human, budgetary and broader policy issues that are involved in this decision. This will require the students to carry out a qualitative and quantitative conceptual study during the first half of the semester and recommend a small set of promising architectures for further study at the Preliminary Design Review (PDR).Both lunar surface telescopes as well as orbital locations should be considered.The second half of the class will then pick 1-2 of the top-rated architectures for a lunar telescope facility and develop the concept in more detail and present the detailed design at the Critical Design Review (CDR). This should not only sketch out the science program, telescope architecture and design, but also the stakeholder relationships, a rough estimate of budget and timeline, and also clarify the role that human explorers could or should play during both deployment and servicing/operations of such a facility (if any).

16.72 Air Traffic Control (MIT)

Hansman, John — 2007-10-31T01:01:32+05:00

This course introduces the various aspects of present and future Air Traffic Control systems. Among the topics in the present system that we will discuss are the systems-analysis approach to problems of capacity and safety, surveillance, including the National Airspace System and Automated Terminal Radar Systems, navigation subsystem technology, aircraft guidance and control, communications, collision avoidance systems and sequencing and spacing in terminal areas. The class will then talk about future directions and development and have a critical discussion of past proposals and of probable future problem areas.

16.682 Prototyping Avionics (MIT)

Saenz-Otero, Alvar — 2007-05-15T01:55:04+05:00

In the past building prototypes of electronic components for new projects/products was limited to using protoboards and wirewrap. Manufacturing a printed-circuit-board was limited to final production, where mistakes in the implementation meant physically cutting traces on the board and adding wire jumpers - the final products would have these fixes on them! Today that is no longer the case, while you will still cut traces and use jumpers when debugging a board, manufacturing a new final version without the errors is a simple and relatively inexpensive task. For that matter, manufacturing a prototype printed circuit board which you know is likely to have errors but which will get the design substantially closer to the final product than a protoboard setup is not only possible, but desirable. In this class, you'll learn to design, build, and debug printed-circuit-boards.

16.540 Internal Flows in Turbomachines (MIT)

Tan, Choon — 2007-05-11T01:24:30+05:00

In 16.540 we address fluid dynamic phenomena of interest in internal flow situations. The emphasis tends to be on problems that arise in air breathing propulsion, but the application of the concepts covered is more general, and the course is wider in scope, than turbomachines (in spite of the title). Stated more directly, the focus is on the fluid mechanic principles that determine the behavior of a broad class of industrial devices. The material can therefore be characterized, only partly tongue in cheek, as "industrial strength fluid mechanics done in a rigorous manner".