Spacecraft Design, Development, and Operation: Lecture Slides

This book is a collection of over 1,700 slides – many in full-color – presented in a short course on the design, development, and operation of spacecraft. The course is offered by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), UCLA, and Taksha Institute as well as given by its author, Don Edberg, as a consultant. The materials are also taught in a two-semester course "Introduction to Space Vehicle Design" given by the author at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. The short course has been given 23 times to over 400 registrants, and the college course has been given for 17 years to over 350 college seniors. The informational materials in these notes have been gathered from textbooks, technical papers, manufacturer websites, and other sources to tell a complete and unified story on how spacecraft are designed, built, and operated. The materials are all in the public domain, but are rarely available together in a cohesive collection such as this. This book contains information that includes the beginning of the design process all the way to end-of-flight disposal or decommissioning. There are slide presentations for 26 oral lectures on all aspects of design and operation of spacecraft, each providing a combination of theoretical concepts along with practical, easy-to-understand diagrams and photos of illustrative hardware and concepts. A multitude of practical step-by-step numerical examples is used to demonstrate important ideas and practices. The goal of this book is to present the history of spacecraft to understand current practices, to provide and explain basic vocabulary and knowledge of current technology, to provide the basic principles of spacecraft design and engineering, and to demonstrate all the various factors which can influence a design, and how disciplines can interact with each other. By studying these notes, the reader will learn important factors of a space vehicle systems design, be able to read and follow most technical papers and presentations on the subject, and know where to look for further expertise.