Open Source Astrodynamics Degree Week 1
At first I was dissappointed that this article was going to come out a day later than I had initially planned, but then I realized it was National Space Day! It is perfect timing that the first article kicking off my journey into the Open Source Astrodynamics Degree is coming out on National Space Day.
With that said, lets dive into the fun and start down the path to understanding the vaste field of astrodynamics. For our first step into this journey, I am going to be laying out the first two “courses” that I have planned and the process for how I will be tackling each one. Each course will consist of an online component that is a free or very cheap online video course or set of recorded lectures and an accompanying book that corresponds to the subject matter, where possible. I am a firm believer that taking in knowledge in multiple formats helps our ability to truly retain that information, so I have structured this in a way that includes both video and written material, where possible.
Now, I will be honest that some of these books are not cheap relative to your standard science fiction novel, but they are on the lower end compared to the majority of university textbooks. Fortunately, this is built in a way that people can find the approach that works best for them. I am simply mapping out my path on this journey and the various learnings and insights I gather along the way. You can choose to follow that same path or use this to inspire your own path. This could include the online courses that I will mention here, but possibly not the books. To me, that is the beautiful thing about education, and I am not referring to the academic institution. A person’s education is a lifelong pursuit that can be molded to fit their learning style, lifestyle requirements, and resources available to them. That is something that I have felt is lacking in our modern academic institutions. We place everyone on the same path and prioritize test scores instead of prioritizing the quality, value, and breadth of the education that an individual is recieving.
I won’t ramble on about that topic though and can save that for another day. Back to the Open Source Astrodynamics Degree, based on inspiration from Forrest Knight, I have broken the degree down into four sections; prerequisites, core astrodynamics, advanced astrodynamcis, and a final project. It is possible that many of you are familiar with some or all of the prerequisites, so feel free to jump in where you feel it is appropriate based on your current understanding of the subject matter. I still wanted to make sure it was covered here for those that are brand new on this journey and need to start with the foundations before diving into the more advanced topics.
Also, I absolutely want to offer a word of warning that it can be extremely tempting to want to jump straight into the more astrodynamcis-specific courses right away, but this can be a common pitfall for people trying to be self-taught. You want to get straight to the fun stuff you love, but this can often create immense frustration when you are not adequately prepared for the material. That frustration and difficulty can lead to many burning out and giving up on the pursuit. So, I highly recommend being honest with yourself and your current knowledge and starting at a point that truly is appropriate for you.
Even myself, who started college as a phyics and mathematics major coming out of high school will be going back to some of the basics. I have taken Calculus one, two, and other advanced mathematics and physics courses, but it has been nearly 10 years since those initial college courses. It is an understatement to say I am rusty on that knowledge. So, to help ensure my success with this and that I truly start on a path to master this field of study, I am going back to some of the basic myself.
For those that are curious, I have based this curriculum off of in-depth research into the various undergraduate and graduate physics, mathematics, aerospace, and astrodynamics degree programs at a wide variety of universities; including MIT, Stanford University, Caltech, CU Boulder, Purdue, and more.
Based on my own personal preference, I am going to be tackling two courses at a time. Where applicable, I will try to balance those courses by having them each touching on different subjects. For example, to start this off I am going to be pairing a physics course with a mathematics course.
To brush up on some foundations, I am starting my journey with an introduction to physics course and introduction to calculus course. I will potentially fast-track these courses, but it depends on how quickly the material comes back to me. This could shift depending on how the load feels, but I am also throwing in Python programming course to brush up on that while I am at it since it will come into play later when we use Python to run complex computations, visualize data, and run simulations. Feel free to pace yourself however you see fit!
For the introduction to physics course, I have chosen the Classical Mechanics course that is taught by MIT and available on their OpenCourseWare platform for free. This course also offers a digital textbook to go along with it.
The introductory calculus course is going to be the Single Variable Calculus course that is also taught by MIT and available on the same OpenCourseWare platform for free. Both of these courses are self-paced and can be started at any time.
Lastly, for my course to brush-up on some Python programming I am going with a course offered by Harvard called Introduction to Programming with Python. This course is offered for free through the edX platform with an optional upgrade of $299 if you want a certificate of completion at the end. This can be discounted down to $254.15 for new edX users.
My goal will be to dedicate a minimum of 2 hours per day towards course-work. Each weekly newsletter will contain my learnings and insights gathered from the course-work I have completed during the previous week. This is intended to provide people with cliffnotes in case they want them, keep myself accountable, and to create a feedback loop to continuously reassess the courses to ensure they are covering the necessary subjects, are in the right order within the curriculum, and are at a level of quality I consider to be acceptable for me to be able to recommend them.
The goal here is to actually learn the material and feel confident about my ability to apply my knowledge in the real world. It isn’t about checking a box on a course list to eventually get a piece of paper at the end, as most universities are designed. This is why some courses may be thrown in that are now part of your typical astrodynamics curriculum, but they might be things that can help create a more robust and well-rounded understanding of this field.
I truly am excited to be diving into this, starting today, and I hope you find this to be valuable as well!
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