The Starship Engineer course is our collective brand name for a set of education courses that we run. These courses are designed to teach participants the basics of spacecraft starship engineering. Typically this includes a team workshop exercise where the attendees complete a technical design solution challenge before presenting their solution to each other.
The courses have been piloted in various forms over several years but we have been successfully running the specific 'Starship Engineer' course for over 3 years.
The introductory one-day course aims to give you a basic grounding in interstellar studies. We go from considering the essential requirements to giving you an overview of different spacecraft systems. You will then be taken you on a journey through several actual starship design studies where we will show you how to calculate and evolve an interstellar machine.
We will give examples from the literature, but focus on two specific case studies, that of fusion propulsion and laser-sail propulsion, as plausible ways by which we may someday reach the distant stars.
Typical schedule
Typically a one-day Starship Engineer course will consist of:
| 09:15 | Registration |
| 09:30 | Introduction and Background to Interstellar Studies (30 min) |
| 10:00 | Spacecraft Systems and General Solutions (30 mins) |
| 10:30 | Coffee Break |
| 10:40 | Solar Sails and Beamed Sails (60 mins) |
| 11:40 | Fusion Propulsion (40 mins) |
| 12:20 | Working Lunch Exercise Briefing (10 mins) |
| 12:30 | Working Lunch (60 mins) |
| 13:30 | Workshop Session (120 mins) |
| 15:30 | Group Presentations (30 mins) |
| 16:00 | Review and Summary (30 mins) |
| 16:30 | End of Course |
| 16:35 | Course Photo |
| 17:00 | End of Day |
If you would like to find out more about the course or book a place on the next available one, then please get in touch with us at info@i4is.org.
2018 Starship Engineer Summer School
We are pleased to announce the launch of the world's first-ever dedicated interstellar summer school, which will be held at the Initiative for Interstellar Studies HQ, The Bone Mill, New Street, Charfield, GL12 8ES from Wednesday 15th to Sunday 19th August 2018.
For more information see our blog post and for admission to this amazing opportunity contact course@i4is.org.
2016 Starship Engineer Course
Teachers: Rob Swinney, Kelvin F. Long
Assisting: John Davies and Gill Norman
2015 Starship Engineer Course
Teachers: Rob Swinney, Kelvin F. Long
Assisting: Anne Swinney
