Aerospace Satellite Engineering MSc
September 2026 Start

This module will investigate and evolve your understanding of smart and future materials and associated methods of manufacture. Much of the module will be at the forefront of the materials and manufacturing knowledge and informed by a critical awareness of new developments and the wider context of engineering and the impact on society. You will critically analyse topics such as those smart materials with the ability to change shape, self-heal and sense, new and emerging materials for extreme environments, materials and manufacturing methods for the circular economy, and manufacture for sustainability.

This module will evolve your understanding of and develop specialist knowledge in the subject area of heat and mass transfer systems. It aims to appraise practical methods in solving complex problems in the subject field using analytical, computational, and experimental approaches. Open-ended problems with no obvious and immediate solution, in topics such as viscous flow, heat transfer and turbulence will be considered and judged in the context of their industrial application. You will evaluate the characterisation and specification of complex systems and emerging technologies in this field in the context of global developments in this area of mechanical engineering.

In the Spacecraft orbital dynamics and control module, you will acquire understanding of behaviour of orbiting spacecraft and gain practice of problem solving in aerospace engineering. Based on the application of mathematical and engineering principles, you will use analytical and computational techniques to solve problems in describing orbits in three dimensions that have some degree of uncertainty in their input data. By addressing such issues using an informed and creative engineering approaches, you will gain confidence in solution of complex and authentic engineering problems related to guidance and positioning of satellites. The module delivery uses the electronic learning platform (eLP) to provide a comprehensive resource for integrated learning incorporating learning materials and reading lists that will facilitate directed and self-directed learning.

In this module you will cover the broad topic of Microprocessors and Microcontrollers and how they are used in Embedded Systems. This will involve investigating processor architectures, operating modes and interfacing to peripherals. Examples of structures from current industrial vendors such as ATMEL, ARM, and Microchip will be explored and examined. You will consider the hardware design and development of embedded microcontroller systems, including implementations for controlling both internal and external interfaces and peripherals. Careful examination of Real-Time control issues, interrupts and microcontroller interactions will be analysed. This will allow you to be able to design the necessary hardware for microcontroller-based systems to meet a client’s specification.

To support the implementation of hardware designs software development of Embedded Microcontroller Systems will be employed looking at both low level assembly language/machine code programming through to C programming. The techniques employed will cover code generation procedures, structured programming techniques, reusable library functions and top down/bottom up programming methods.
All these techniques will be applied case studies based upon industrial research activities. Typical applications include:

These will cover areas such as temperature monitoring, algorithmic techniques; message passing systems and communication protocols.

Microcontroller technology has a broad range of applications within industry and research environments. Employing the use of a sophisticated ARM module exposes students to the diverse implementations, of such modules, and provides the key technical skills required by industry essential to modern digital and communication systems.

This module aims to further develop your capabilities in the areas of digital systems by means of synthesizable register-transfer level (RTL) coding.

The module starts by introducing digital system design and an overview of Verilog language. You will learn the implementation of both sequential and combinational circuits using Verilog as well as the concept of testbench and will learn how to apply the concept of testbench to real-world problems and how to simulate the real devices and digital components in your testbench. Through examples, you also will learn about FSM and design hierarchy and the benefit of clean code in a project. Further sections continue with the common design techniques, such as synchronisation reset, ping-pong operation, and cross clock domain design.
You will also learn techniques and tools that help you with developing your RTL codes including:
1- Simulation
2- Debugging
3- FSM design tools
4- Available standard library
This part of the module comes with a set of workshops specifically arranged to teach you how to use designated tools for simulation and programming a FPGA device.

Another section of the module is devoted to programming FPGA using modern programming languages. You will start by understanding SoC architectures and available modern programming languages for FPGA. Then you will learn the fundamental requirements of using a modern programming language for FPGA programming such as commonly used keywords, libraries, packages, etc. The structure of the modern programming language is covered and its implementing is then explained through several examples and you learn how to apply your acquired knowledge to real world problems. You then will be briefly introduced to topics including digital signal processing (DSP), software defined radio (SDR), and their common and cutting-edge applications in daily life and industry.

In this module, you will learn about the principles of photovoltaic (PV) system, design, operation and application. This will include consideration of the system components and the design and configuration of the solar array, together with examples of stand-alone, grid-connected and space applications. The module will also help you to appreciate the critical issues relating to the implementation of photovoltaic systems.

The topics within the module syllabus include:
• PV arrays and system components
• Grid connected PV systems, including large scale and building integrated systems
• Stand-alone PV systems and applications
• Concentrator PV systems
• PV arrays for satellite power supply
• Monitoring and performance analysis
• Operation and maintenance, system lifetime, standards and regulations

This module aims to introduce you to the concepts, structure and organisation of wireless communications from a system point of view, thus illustrating the theoretical concepts and their application in practical scenarios. Wireless communication systems including the old analogue as well all digital technologies based on the optical and radio frequencies will be introduced. In addition, you will learn about the fundamental theoretical concepts for both radio and optical based wireless communications.

The module syllabus:

• Communication Regulation: Regulating authorities; standards organisation; frequency spectrum, and power usage.

• Radio Communication: System and subsystem specifications for radio based communication including antennas and propagation mechanisms; cellular wireless systems, traffic engineering; noise and interference; noise factor and cascaded systems; wireless channel; link budget calculations; frequency re-use; GSM; multi-path propagation.

• Optical Wireless Communications: Including the concept of indoor optical wireless systems; diffused and line of sight links; optical channel characteristics; noise sources; and optical path link budgets.

• Digital Communication: M-ary modulation and demodulation; coherent and non-coherent systems; signalling space and constellation diagrams; BER performance of different modulation formats; matched filter detection.

• Multiplexing and Multiple Access: TDM, FDM, TDMLA, FDMA and CDMA.

The syllabus will allow you to understand and pursue careers of communication system design and deployment within the telecommunications industry. This module together with other modules such as the high level system design and high level digital / analogue circuit design will give you the skills and expertise required within the telecommunications and computer network industries, as well as preparing you to do further studies in the this and relevant fields.

This module will provide a general introduction and understanding of satellites and satellite missions. You will learn about:

General introduction and historical perspective of satellite missions

Mission Lifecycle

Satellites and their sub-systems

Orbital dynamics

The Space Environment in which satellites operate

Policies and Law related to Space Operations

Launching Satellites into orbit, including propulsion methods



For each topic you will explore the implications on satellite design and operation and use the workshop sessions to apply your new knowledge to relevant examples and problems from past and current missions. In the workshops you will also learn and apply relevant soft skill, such as project management, engineering management, and satellite mission design alongside the analysis methods required to inform the design process. This will form the basis of the assessment of a preliminary design study and a critical analysis of a satellite mission concept.

Academic skills when studying away from your home institution can differ due to cultural and language differences in teaching and assessment practices. This module is designed to support your transition in the use and practice of technical language and subject specific skills around assessments and teaching provision in your chosen subject area in the Department of Architecture and Built Environment. The overall aim of this module is to develop your abilities to read and study effectively for academic purposes; to develop your skills in analysing and using source material in seminars and academic writing and to develop your use and application of language and communications skills to a higher level.

The topics you will cover on the module include:

• Understanding assignment briefs and exam questions.
• Developing academic writing skills, including citation, paraphrasing, and summarising.
• Practising ‘critical reading’ and ‘critical writing’.
• Planning and structuring academic assignments (e.g. essays, reports and presentations).
• Avoiding academic misconduct and gaining credit by using academic sources and referencing effectively.
• Listening skills for lectures.
• Speaking in seminar presentations.
• Giving discipline-related academic presentations, experiencing peer observation, and receiving formative feedback.
• Speed reading techniques.
• Discussing ethical issues in research, and analysing results.
• Describing bias and limitations of research.
• Developing self-reflection skills.

In this module students will learn about Strategic Management, Project Management including Project Definition and its links to Project Success through the Management of Risk as well as Planning and Control of projects. Students will learn about management techniques and professional issues associated with relevant industry and society. They will enhance their critical reflection, analysis and other transferable skills which will aid their studies and support their career progression after graduating.

In addition, students will consider the role of ethics in delivering a Business Strategy and in their role as a manager. The Learning and Teaching strategy will engage students with lectures and online resources, much guided and independent reading about theory and practice as well as seminars where they will develop and improve their abilities and skills through reflection, discussion, and argument. The assessment will seek to move students from passive gatherers of knowledge to active participants in management decision making. Through the process they will refine and improve their own approaches to solving management problems in the subject disciplines. Students are required to critically analyse the management environment and to propose solution based on the module theory.

This module will familiarize you with the main spacecraft subsystems and their design constraints. You will also learn how these subsystems influence each other as part of a systems engineering introduction.

You will cover the subsystems: structures and mechanics, including deployable assets, attitude determination and control system, electrical and power systems, thermal control systems, communication system including ground support, and the data handling system. For each of the systems, different options and their advantages and drawbacks will be discussed. In the workshops, you will be asked to apply your new knowledge to problems related to those systems and perform trade-off analyses.

You will learn about systems engineering approaches commonly used in the space industry such as requirements engineering and concurrent design. We will also explore risk and change management.

The workshops will provide opportunity to use the design principles to design each subsystem to a given set of requirements. This will be the basis for the first and second assessments, which are a Preliminary Design Review (PDR) presentation and report. The first assessment will allow you to work in a group to design an optimised subsystem as part of a full satellite system.
After the presentation, the teaching team and members of all other teams will provide you with Review Items that should help you improve your design and prepare you to write a detailed individual subsystem PDR report for the second assessment.

This module aims to make use of the knowledge and analytic skills developed throughout the programme to provide solutions to real-world industrial and research problems. In this module you will develop:

• Critical thinking on current engineering practices and their limitations, and exposure to state of the art technologies.

• Independent problem solving skills to develop and propose solutions to fundamental and subtle problems.

• An understanding and appreciation for the need and application of ethics within research and the wider society, and ability to apply this in the context of the engineering project being undertaken.

• Project management skills to organise and plan tasks with clear objectives, outcomes and timescales, and analyse the true “cost” in order to achieve project outcomes.

• Key technical writing and presentation skills to a professional standard expected by both industry and academia.

These will provide a professional base from which you will be able to identify and use key knowledge, objectives, theories and techniques, plan and cost in order to bid, for funding, for future industrial and research projects. A key requirement of a professional engineer.