Duration of the online course: 17 hours and 32 minutes
5
(1)
Step into the engineering behind rockets and spacecraft and learn to reason about flight where everyday intuition stops working. This free online course introduces the physical principles that govern motion beyond the atmosphere, helping you connect forces, momentum, and reference frames to the realities of spaceflight. You will gain a solid foundation in how rockets differ from cars, aircraft, or simple projectiles, and why space missions are driven by velocity requirements, orbital mechanics, and careful propulsion design.
You will work through the core ideas that shape modern aerospace engineering, from motion in space and rotational frames of reference to the practical meaning of orbital speed, circular orbits, and geostationary altitude. Instead of treating these as isolated facts, the course builds engineering judgment: how to estimate what it takes to reach orbit, when escape velocity matters, and how mission delta V influences the entire vehicle architecture. This context is essential for anyone considering careers in aerospace, mechanical systems, or adjacent fields that value rigorous modeling and systems thinking.
A major focus is rocket propulsion, including the rocket equation, staging strategies, and propulsion efficiency. You will learn how design tradeoffs affect payload fraction, why upper stages are so influential, and what performance constraints appear at liftoff compared with high-altitude flight. The course then connects theory to hardware through nozzle concepts: throat conditions, expansion for maximum thrust, characteristic velocity, thrust coefficient, divergence losses, and common geometries such as conical and bell nozzles, along with unconventional designs that adapt across altitude.
Finally, you will explore how engineers choose propellants and predict performance, including mixture ratio effects, chamber pressure influences on combustion chemistry and dissociation, and how equilibrium or frozen-flow assumptions change results. The course also introduces solid rocket fundamentals, typical composite propellant composition, gas generation from burning surfaces, and why certain propellant families are preferred in specific mission types. With targeted exercises throughout, you will finish with a practical, confidence-building understanding of how rockets are analyzed and why real-world propulsion decisions look the way they do.
Video class: Mod-01 Lec-01 Introduction
57m
Exercise: Why does rocket dynamics differ fundamentally from that of a car or a projectile fired from a gun?
Video class: Mod-01 Lec-02 Motion in Space
45m
Exercise: Impulse and Force Relationship
Video class: Mod-01 Lec-03 Rotational Frame of Reference and Orbital Velocities
41m
Exercise: Orbital velocity for a circular Earth orbit
Video class: Mod-01 Lec-04 Velocity Requirements
52m
Exercise: Height of a Geostationary Orbit (in km)
Video class: Mod-01 Lec-05 Theory of Rocket Propulsion
50m
Exercise: What is the approximate escape velocity from Earth’s surface?
Video class: Mod-01 Lec-06 Rocket Equation and Staging of Rockets
55m
Exercise: For a fixed mission delta V and structural mass, which change increases the payload mass fraction in the ideal rocket equation?
Video class: Mod-01 Lec-07 Review of Rocket Principles: Propulsion Efficiency
59m
Exercise: Booster-stage performance: which parameter matters most at liftoff when propellant mass fraction is small?
Video class: Mod-01 Lec-08 Examples Illustrating Theory of Rocket Propulsion and Introduction to Nozzles
54m
Exercise: Why do upper stages contribute more delta V in a multistage rocket?
Video class: Mod-01 Lec-09 Theory of Nozzles
51m
Exercise: In SI units, what is the correct unit for specific impulse in rocket propulsion
Video class: Mod-01 Lec-10 Nozzles Shapes
52m
Exercise: Condition at the throat for maximum acceleration in a convergent-divergent nozzle
Video class: Mod-01 Lec-12 Characteristic Velocity and Thrust Coefficient
54m
Exercise: Nozzle expansion condition for maximum thrust
Video class: Mod-01 Lec-13 Divergence Loss in Conical Nozzles and the Bell Nozzle
50m
Exercise: What semi divergence angle is typically chosen for a conical rocket nozzle to balance thrust loss and nozzle length?
Video class: Mod-01 Lec-14 Unconventional Nozzles and Problems in Nozzles
54m
Exercise: Which nozzle concept provides two operating modes via a step, enabling separation at low altitude and reattachment at high altitude?
Video class: Mod-01 Lec-15 Criterion for Choice of Chemical Propellants
53m
Exercise: Which combination best improves characteristic velocity C star in a chemical rocket
Video class: Mod-01 Lec-16 Choice of Fuel-Rich Propellants
56m
Exercise: Mixture ratio for maximizing c star in chemical rockets
Video class: Mod-01 Lec-17 Performance Prediction Analysis
57m
Exercise: Effect of chamber pressure on dissociation and properties in H2 O2 rocket combustion
Video class: Mod-01 Lec-19 Shifting Equilibrium and Frozen Flow in Nozzles
52m
Exercise: Impact of chamber pressure on dissociation and performance
Video class: Mod-01 Lec-20 Factors Influencing Choice of Chemical Propellants
51m
Exercise: Typical composition of a composite solid propellant
Video class: Mod-01 Lec-22 Introduction to Solid Propellant Rockets
52m
Exercise: For a solid propellant grain, which relation gives the mass generation rate of gas from the burning surface
Video class: Mod-01 Lec-24 Solid Rockets – Propellants
48m
Exercise: Why are homogeneous (double‑base) propellants preferred in tactical missiles over composite propellants?
17 hours and 32 minutes of online video course
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Course comments: Aerospace Engineering
Sanket S Anchekar
good