Had a really awesome shower thought. I’m only year 10 at 17 years old and I want to construct my idea on a computer. What software do aerospace engineers use to design and test that design? To get the jist (idk if this will work) but the rocket will fly beside a nuclear icbm during flight and a door will open and it will hold the nuclear icbm actually inside the missile. Looking at ways to stop the nuclear reaction while it’s in the missile maybe with graphite, I might have to look at how nuclear reactors shutdown the reaction. Basically it locks manually and then will fly to a military installation. Thats my idea I have no idea if it will work but any help is wanted.

Edit: Hopefully what I wrote makes sense, just picture a rocket with an open door flying next to an icbm and then moving over so that the icbm is now inside the rocket and then the door closes and the reaction is contained so no explosion or contamination and then the manually guided anti icbm flys to a military base where proper procedure is done.

If I recall correctly NASA already attempted to build a reusable velhice system - The Shuttle - and It failed to cut down the prices, rather it not just didn't manage to decreased the costs, It increased It by a substancial margin.

My question is, Will Starship and its reusability approach bears the same fate(the refurbishment Will costs so much It won't worth It?)?

I have my doubts cuz even in a single flight(the recent one) the flaps got totally torn off, even If you rebuild them with a more robust shielding system I didn't see them lasting ten flights or so.

If It going to need so many refurbishment then surely It's going to be way more expensive than a disposable one, am I wrong?

I don’t know why whenever there is an airline incident involving Boeing Aircrafts people easily point and blame Boeing Company. In the Philippines where we have fleets of Boeing Aircrafts, we do not have these kinds of minor or major incidents with our Boeing Aircrafts in the Philippine Airlines because we have good and high skilled maintenance workers who keeps our planes in pristine condition. To be honest we have more incidents with the Airbus planes than our Boeing planes. Sometimes, it’s not the Airline Companies fault, sometimes it’s the ground crews fault for their poor maintenance.

Not an AE engineer (yet), but I love researching this type of info in my free time. I've always wondered why plane engines use nitrous oxide instead of oxygen. This question was raised after I though of an (what I think to be) an interesting, albeit impractical, idea of of using some electricity produced by the alternator to break down water via electrolysis and use the oxygen in the engine. With my (limited) knowledge, wouldn't that vastly increase service ceiling? And if you're using 10 or 20 gallons of water, you could have a very long supply of oxygen for the engine to run, Whereas N2O seems to be a more limited supply for use (from the little bit I know about it's use in aircraft engines) and requires more steps to make it and condense it into a liquid for more storage capacity. So why isn't pure oxygen used?

EDIT: for the people asking "when and where did aircraft engines use nitrous oxide?" The germans used it in their engines back in WW2

Hi, I’m currently a student studying Aerospace engineering in uni and I’ve started to have a bit of a crisis and was hoping to get some guidance from professionals in the field.

I started this degree because I wanted to design rockets/spacecraft to help push humanity further into the stars, but I’ve come to realize that all I am learning and all I might do in my career could be easily used by my government to devise weapons of war to serve their imperialist interests.

I don’t know how to cope with this, I guess I’ve just been turning a blind eye to it these past few years but I was recently faced with a situation where I had to confront it and was shaken, it took all my willpower to not break down crying in public.

Should I switch degrees? I would only need 2 more classes to swap to mechanical and maybe that way I could be better suited to design trains or bridges or something.. something that can’t be so easily turned into a weapon.

Sorry for the long post, if this isn’t the right place for this can I please be directed to the correct community, thanks for any insight any of you can provide.

Hey everybody, I’m Not an aerospace engineer. I’m more a “mildly-hobby-taught aerospace physicist” 😅 Lets go with that.

I’ve always wondered what holds us back from designing ships like those in r/StarfieldShip

I mean, nothing like Grav Drives or fuel that makes intra-system travel an easy task, but we got to the moon in a rocket and then had to build another to go back.

We have reusable rockets now, we have helicopters and cars and planes and some pretty dang powerful rocket fuels.

Why can’t/don’t we build ships like these that can go back and forth to the moon?

I know Artemis is going to be a stepping stone for rocket refuels and such. Why not spaceship refuels?

Kindness for the ignorant in your responses is greatly appreciated! Thanks, and enjoy the ships from that subreddit if that’s your thing!

EDIT: You all deserve upvotes for taking this seriously enough to respond! I know science fiction can be a bit obnoxious in the scientific community (for some justifiable reasons and some not so much) but most of you were patient enough with me to give genuine responses. Thank you!

EDIT: My bad on the sub link. Should be working now

I'm really trying to understand how people in the industry carry out trade studies, and any insight on that would be fantastic. Reason why i want to understand this is because I've created a website that helps automate the trade study process, but I've been trying to spot any gaps in my current knowledge. My only experience with trade studies was during class and later during my internship at NASA.

Anyone with any sort of experience feel free to share? Also do you guys like to do trade studies, or find them fun?

Key in the top left corner.

So my assignment problem is coding a program to find the mach number and total enthalpy using python/matlab. I prefer python coz of the vast possiblities in AI and Automation. Can someone please help me with this🫡

Can someone PLEASE explain how you could POSSIBLY disagree with me here?

I saw someone post about some AI Aviation project they built. I'm sorry, but it is absolutely ridiculous. This really rubbed me the wrong way.

AI is just a soulless remix machine. It only regurgitates the data it's been trained on, but it will never have the experience and nuances real engineers have. Injecting AI into anything important is dangerous. And, it's terrible for the environment too.

AI has no place near Aviation, this isn’t the same as generating photos or writing poems.

Am I missing something? Please explain how I'm wrong and why ANYONE would think this is a good idea?

————————————————————

Edit: I can’t BELIEVE I’m getting so much backlash and hate?! LOOK at what the guy made, that’s what I’m talking about. I’m not talking about all these other random examples. His APP is DANGEROUS. And there was people LOVING it in the comments. This is ridiculous. AI is DANGEROUS!!!!!!!!! I can’t believe I have to spell this out.

How important is multivariable calculus in MAE?

Sorry if this is the wrong thread for this question. It's not necessarily about anything "imaginary" just not invented yet.

Not necessarily asking about a saucer per se but piloted-aircraft that can propel itself freely in any direction, such as a drone.

Are there technological advancements we haven't discovered yet? Is it not commercially feasible? Or is there some other reason?

Thanks!

EDIT: apparently it was invented and failed in the early 1960s. So my revised question is: why hasn't anybody tried again for so many decades with the current advancement and technology?

To the really smart people here that knows about flight and planes.

The plane that literally dropped out of the sky in Brazil I believe 2 days ago and killed everyone on board the plane. I know we do not have all of the facts on why the plane dropped to the ground. I would like to know from the experts in this group on any hypothesis any of you have on the cause of the airplane dropping straight down to the ground. Thanks in advance.

I'm just going to come out and say it.

A BSAE is harder than a MSAE and that's why people skip the undergrad in favor of something else then get the graduate degree instead.

When I was around 9-10 years old, I imagined a flying car powered by its own wheels. The wheels would be connected to a rod that transferred motion to a gearbox inside a casing resembling a commercial jet engine. Instead of a turbofan, it housed a large propeller at the front, spinning purely from the car’s engine. For takeoff, the car would accelerate on the road, building enough speed. As the driver pulled back on the controls, the propeller—already at high RPM—would generate enough thrust to lift the car into the air. The wings, mounted with the propeller, would provide the necessary lift. A high-performance car, like a Lamborghini or Ferrari, ect would be ideal due to its powerful engines, aerodynamic design, and minimal air resistance, allowing for efficient propulsion. In my mind, it was the perfect fusion of a supercar and an aircraft, seamlessly transitioning from road to sky.

Hi folks,

I built a beginners course on Python aimed at engineers, scientists or anyone involved in data/modelling/simulation. I had launched the course before on Udemy but now moving to my own platform to try and improve my margins longer term.

So I'm looking to try and build some reviews/reputation and get feedback on the whole process. So for the next week I've opened up the course for free enrolment.

If you do take the course, please could you leave me a review on Trustpilot? An email arrives a few days after enrolling.

Here's the link to sign up: https://www.schoolofsimulation.com/course_python_bootcamp_discounted

And if you have any really scathing feedback that I can fix, I'd be grateful for a DM!

If you do enrol, hope you find the course helpful.

Cheers,

Harry

I saw a Vid showing that Normal Engineering is basic but Space Engineering is so Difficult and as a Student I wanna know that why is it so? I mean it will be so Pleasuring to me if any Space Engineer will answer this and Talk to me, it is my one of the Biggest wish right now.

So, please, Any Space Engineer?

I am looking for best metal 3d printer to make aerospace parts.It would be better if I know where and how to buy it and at what amount.

because obviously they don't throw you in a room and say "make me rocket". Surely, there's blueprints, interactions, what material to use right..? maybe even a company video..?