November 1, 2012
Martin Brennan, an aerospace engineering doctoral candidate, is changing the face of education for undergraduate students in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at The University of Texas at Austin.
Working with his faculty advisor, Professor Wallace Fowler, Brennan is designing software that will allow students to develop creative ways of accomplishing missions for the Spacecraft Mission Design course, the capstone senior design class for students specializing in the space flight technical area.
The new program allows students to develop more realistic trajectory timelines for their missions, which gives their design projects more credibility within given constraints. Examples of mission design improvements include choosing the launch date when the planets are in the proper alignment, ensuring current launch vehicle capabilities can achieve the trajectory and allocating just enough fuel so the spacecraft can complete its mission without being too heavy. Because students spend less time calculating trajectories, they are now able to spend more time on mission creativity and design.
Previously, students had to rely on using trajectories that had been designed by independent studies or former missions, due to the intense time investment required to develop these trajectories from scratch. Without having the ability to alter a trajectory to meet the unique needs of their mission, the students have had to settle with either choosing a new mission or adapting their mission to match the existing trajectory, defeating the purpose of the senior design investigations.
Students are no longer limited to projects that have been done in the past and are now able to choose new mission destinations and scenarios that have never been attempted before, such as a Mars sample return, a Uranus orbiter, or an Eris flyby. Brennan’s software will provide the trajectory to destinations with real times and actual amounts of fuel necessary to complete the mission.
Prior to coming to UT, Brennan completed his undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering at Mississippi State University. When he decided he wanted to branch out and expand his horizons for graduate school, he turned to his mentor, Dr. Carrie Olson.
Olson, a former PhD student advised by Dr. Fowler, recommended that Brennan look into the UT ASE graduate program. She spoke highly of the department and its research in aerodynamics as well as Dr. Fowler’s research in orbital mechanics.
“When I decided to attend UT, I knew that I was going to a world class school with great research,” Brennan said. “I get to follow in people’s footprints as I make my own. I’m picking up with research that other people have left behind, but I also get to start my own.”
Brennan came to UT in 2009, completed his MS in 2011 and plans to graduate with his PhD in 2014. Until then, he will continue working with the design software to increase its capabilities. In addition to trajectories, his hope is that the software will assist with the design of other spacecraft aspects, such as improving solar panel design, exploring other planets and changing the trajectory of an asteroid coming towards earth.
Brennan has thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of being a graduate student at UT, including teaching the Spacecraft Systems Laboratory course.
“Being at UT has been eye opening. There is so much experience and such a strong foundation in spacecraft and orbital mechanics that there’s an endless supply of knowledge,” he said. “One of the things I’ve enjoyed the most is the ability to teach a course consecutively. I really learn the material and see how the students apply that material in the senior design class. It’s like seeing ideas in action. They keep getting better and better.”
Upon graduation, Brennan hopes to work in industry before entering academia.
