University of Colorado Boulder
Kinematics: Describing the Motions of Spacecraft
University of Colorado Boulder

Kinematics: Describing the Motions of Spacecraft

This course is part of Spacecraft Dynamics and Control Specialization

Taught in English

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Hanspeter Schaub

Instructor: Hanspeter Schaub

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4.9

(314 reviews)

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94%

Advanced level
Designed for those already in the industry
28 hours (approximately)
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace

What you'll learn

  • Differentiate a vector as seen by another rotating frame and derive frame dependent velocity and acceleration vectors

  • Apply the Transport Theorem to solve kinematic particle problems and translate between various sets of attitude descriptions

  • Add and subtract relative attitude descriptions and integrate those descriptions numerically to predict orientations over time

  • Derive the fundamental attitude coordinate properties of rigid bodies and determine attitude from a series of heading measurements

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Assessments

36 quizzes

Course

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals

4.9

(314 reviews)

|

94%

Advanced level
Designed for those already in the industry
28 hours (approximately)
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace

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This course is part of the Spacecraft Dynamics and Control Specialization
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There are 4 modules in this course

This module covers particle kinematics. A special emphasis is placed on a frame-independent vectorial notation. The position velocity and acceleration of particles are derived using rotating frames utilizing the transport theorem.

What's included

13 videos3 quizzes

This module provides an overview of orientation descriptions of rigid bodies. The 3D heading is here described using either the direction cosine matrix (DCM) or the Euler angle sets. For each set the fundamental attitude addition and subtracts are discussed, as well as the differential kinematic equation which relates coordinate rates to the body angular velocity vector.

What's included

18 videos1 reading10 quizzes

This module covers modern attitude coordinate sets including Euler Parameters (quaternions), principal rotation parameters, Classical Rodrigues parameters, modified Rodrigues parameters, as well as stereographic orientation parameters. For each set the concepts of attitude addition and subtraction is developed, as well as mappings to other coordinate sets.

What's included

29 videos18 quizzes

This module covers how to take an instantaneous set of observations (sun heading, magnetic field direction, star direction, etc.) and compute a corresponding 3D attitude measure. The attitude determination methods covered include the TRIAD method, Devenport's q-method, QUEST as well as OLAE. The benefits and computation challenges are reviewed for each algorithm.

What's included

13 videos5 quizzes1 peer review

Instructor

Instructor ratings
5.0 (96 ratings)
Hanspeter Schaub

Top Instructor

University of Colorado Boulder
10 Courses31,746 learners

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