This is a design study for an astronomical spacecraft which takes usually place at La Laguna University (ULL), Tenerife, Spain. It is likely that the trip will take place remotely in 2020/2021. The focus of this module is to carry out a design study for an astronomical spacecraft mission with instrumentation for the detection of gamma-rays from astrophysical sources.
The students make use of lectures, tutorials, computer and library facilities to assemble a review of the state of knowledge for such a proposed instrumentation challenge. They then work in parallel in teams of students. The aim is to produce a well thought-out spacecraft design for a specific gamma-ray astrophysics goal, after a concentrated period of intensive work.
A series of approximately 12 lectures will be given in UCD prior to the trip, in order to provide students with the necessary basic technical skills required for undertaking the study. Students will be required to perform an extensive review of current gamma-ray missions and to review the literature in relation to science goals in high energy astrophysics.
Advisors will be available to assist the student teams with various aspects of their task. For example, they would provide support in such areas as: computation, detector design, astrophysics, mission planning and the environment of space. Each team will be directly supervised by a member of staff from either UCD, Southampton or ULL. Depending on numbers, this field trip may not run in every academic year. This trip takes place in late March/early April.
Learning Outcomes:
On completion of this module students will be able to:
- work in small teams with each member having a specific responsibility, and know how to interact positively with other members of a close team,
- perform a detailed of the relevant literature
- devise a solution to a complicated problem in a relatively short period of time,
- work closely with people from a different country and background,
- write software pipelines in a suitable language (e.g. Python) for the simulation of spacecraft instrument performance and sensitivity
- develop presentation and research skills
- prepare a mission feasibility study
- present scientific results comprehensively and fluently, orally and in writing
