Kinematics: Describing the Motions of Spacecraft

The movement of bodies in space (like spacecraft, satellites, and space stations) must be predicted and controlled with precision in order to ensure safety and efficacy. Kinematics is a field that develops descriptions and predictions of the motion of these bodies in 3D space. This course in Kinematics covers four major topic areas: an introduction to particle kinematics, a deep dive into rigid body kinematics in two parts (starting with classic descriptions of motion using the directional cosin

• Differentiate vectors in rotating frames and derive velocity and acceleration
• Apply the Transport Theorem to solve particle kinematics
• Integrate relative attitude descriptions to predict orientations
• Derive fundamental attitude properties for rigid bodies

• Advanced knowledge of applied mathematics and linear algebra