Graduate Projects I and II (ASEN 5018/6028) is a two-semester course sequence designed to expose MS and PhD students to Project Management and Systems Engineering disciplines while working a complex aerospace engineering project as part of a project team.   The project team of from 7 to 20 students may perform some or all of the following project activities during the two-semester course sequence:   requirements definition, design and design review, build, test, and verification.   A lecture common to all lab sections will introduce students to project management, systems engineering and entrepreneurship as well as technology transfer and intellectual property issues.

 

For ASEN 5018, it is strongly recommended that students interested in a particular graduate project section enroll early in the open enrollment period. If a graduate project section is full, students are encouraged to choose another project. They may also place themselves on the waitlist; however, until all graduate projects sections have been adequately enrolled, waitlisted students are not guaranteed a spot in the course.

 

Graduate Projects is a suitable option for degree AES MS students who choose to complete two semesters of work on an aerospace engineering project rather than write a thesis or complete certificate required coursework to satisfy graduation requirements, and for PhD students who value this type of project experience to meet their coursework requirements.  The course is also open to students in other engineering departments with the approval of the project professor. 

 

Students completing this course series will be better prepared for the type of project management processes and team dynamics they will encounter in government and industry. The knowledge and skills gained by the students as a result of taking this course will make them more competitive and effective in today's job market.

 

 

End of semester final presentations:

MinXSS - Friday May 3 from 9:00 to 4:00 at LASP

XHab - Pre-ship to NASA Review day and location TBD

HySoR - Monday April 29 from 1:00 to 4:00 in ECAE 1B16

Dream Chaser - Tuesday April 30 from 2:00 to 5:00 in KOBL S233

Hyperion - Wednesday May 1 from 5:00 to 7:00 in KOBL 102

 

 

Current Projects

 

Here is a brief description of the projects currently available.  For more detail contact Joe Tanner at joe.tanner@colorado.edu or the professor for the project in which you are interested.

 

• The goal of GoJett is to design, build and test the first unmanned, supersonic aircraft with a mass less than 50 kg. The GoJett team is currently working on an Engineering Test Unit (ETU) for integration and Hardware in the Loop (HWIL) testing. GoJett utilizes a small jet engine with a custom designed afterburner and Variable Area Nozzle (VAN). In the future the team will be employing an innovative thrust vectoring control system as well as software for autonomous flight. The following flyer provides more detail. Course Flyer. This project has some ITAR restrictions (applicable to international students) so please check in with the project professor – Dr. Ryan Starkey - before registering.

 

Ryan Starkey, left, Brandon Bosomworth, center, and Edgar Flores hold parts of a supersonic engine as they work on the project at the University of Colorado Engineering Center on Friday. ( Derek Broussard – Boulder Daily Camera ) 

 

 

 

• The Human Spacecraft Design Dream Chaser team works on various aspects of vehicle subsystem definition and integration, including determining the required functional components and developing methodologies to analyze their placement options within or exterior to the pressurized volume. Previous semesters had been focused on a Lunar Lander prototype, while the current effort is tied to the 'Dream Chaser' concept vehicle - a commercial, human-rated, orbital spacecraft under development by a Colorado aerospace company.  Analytical tools were developed to assess human factors concerns such as quantifying accessibility of a given component for its operation, repair or replacement, and to perform mass and CG envelope calculations that include secondary structures and wiring/fluid connection pathways. The current team effort is focused on the cockpit design and layout with emphasis on performance and human factors.  The cockpit layout will be placed in a full-scale volumetric mock up of the spacecraft interior to validate the design. Future projects will be determined in related areas as needs arise. Students must be a U.S Citizen or permanent resident alien (green card holder) to enroll in this section. Project Poster. Project professor – Jim Voss 
  
  http://www.colorado.edu/engineering/features-cue-home/astronauts-trade-spaceflight-student-contact
  http://www.colorado.edu/news/r/90fe7ee0fbaf04be91ac13ccdbeb5635.html

 

 

• The Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS) is the current cubesat design in a multi-year small satellite project class.  MinXSS is the first cubesat with the objective of studying the Sun using a miniature spectrometer.  An overview of the design can be seen in the attached presentation.  This project heavily involves its team members with scientists and engineers at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) located on East Campus at CU.  Project website: http://www.thesciencecollective.com/minxss/ Project professor – Dr. Xinlin LI

 

•    The Hybrid Sounding Rocket (HySoR) project was started in Fall 2010 under the sponsorship of United Launch Alliance (ULA). The ultimate goal of the project is to develop a system to launch and release a 2 kg payload at an altitude of 100 km using a hybrid-rocket motor. The immediate goal is to reach 10 km altitude with a commercial off-the-shelf oxidizer tank. This feat has never been accomplished by a university team, especially at such a phenomenally low budget. This project is built upon know-how from previous aerospace senior design projects, which designed and built non-flight-ready hybrid-rocket motors of different sizes. The HySoR team redesigned many of the components to make them flight-ready and, in addition, is designing the rocket body, electronics, and ground systems to support a successful launch. Upon successful launch and payload recovery, the HySoR rocket will provide an affordable capability to launch scientific, student-built payloads. The team is in the final stages of designing and building a smaller-scale prototype rocket using a commercial, off-the-shelf oxidizer tank. A static test fire was conducted in November 2011 (see video here) and the team is hoping for a launch in late Spring 2013. Symposium Poster   Video of static test fire 5, linked here. For additional information view the HySoR website. Video static test fire 4. Project professor – Dr. Lakshmi Kantha
  
  

   

• The NASA X-Hab project started in the fall 2012 semester and will continue two semesters.  The project vision is to establish the University of Colorado as the world’s premier laboratory for studying and testing long-term space habitat design elements specifically focused on environmental control and life support system (ECLSS) technologies.  The focus of the project will be on creating an integrative habitat that includes workspaces for designing, building, integrating and testing various ECLSS elements.  The first two systems to be developed will be a robotically tended bioregenerative plant system and a carbon dioxide scrubbing system.  The plant system will have a multiple crop bed rotation, where the first bed contains a nutrient bedding in which seeds will be planted, and the last bed rotation is where a robot removes the dead plant and dumps it into the bioreactor to make methane aromas.  Students working on the carbon dioxide scrubbing portion of the project will design and build an innovative technology based system and experimental test bed.  This project section is suitable for any student with interest in robotics, chemistry, structures, or space habitat systems in general.  Project professors - Joe Tanner and Dr. Nikolaus Correll