Any Aerospace Engineers or AE students here?

[AE_student]

I'm about a year into my undergrad work at a local community college, and will soon be transferring to a University to do my core classes in AE. Was wondering if any other AE students or actual engineers play this? I can't help but think that this might give me a leg up later on, and I wouldn't be terribly surprised if I see this or something like it in a classroom setting. Share your thoughts and let me know how you feel about the game. This might be a great place for us to learn from our peers.

[mstrfalco]

I'm doing AE at Georgia tech. But me and most others are going into fields closely related to flight mechanics. I could see you getting a leg up if you went into orbital mechanics though. I checked out Cambridge's intro text book for AE orbital mechanics and felt I already knew a lot of it. Maybe 1/3- 1/2 of what I knew came from ksp. Sadly though the simulators they use in those classes are nothing close to ksp. The programs are accurate to real life settings but they are more equivelent to a page you punch numbers into and it spits numbers back out. Anyways keep it up! Love to see others getting into the aerospace industry

[Decent Weasel]

I'm studying Engineering Physics in Aerospace, just getting toward actual aero classes this coming semester. However, most of my experience with celestial mechanics came from Microsoft Space Simulator and Orbiter, honestly.

[dustinsonger]

im getting ready to transfer to UW's astronautical engineering program... I guess having been working towards this, the game was very easy to get into and understand, so i know it gave me a leg up the opposite way your asking about. But as far as it affecting the the other way around, without being a programmer or mod maker i feel i am missing out on a lot of the learning from the game.

Edited August 2, 2013 by dustinsonger

[J0hnsmine]

I want to become one once i finish high school.

[CaptainCrunchSaus]

Definitely a broadcast journalism major and I still love all the calculations associated with this game hahahah

[mobious44]

I'm a senior in high school. I plan to major in aerospace engineering at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. This game only spurs my interest in the science of it.

[Apotheosist]

I'm going to study Aerospace Engineering at Swansea University, Wales, UK in September. Well, if I get the grades that is which I will be finding out in 6 days. The AE department at Swansea University do a lot of computational fluid dynamics work for the Bloodhound supersonic car, which if you haven't already heard of, you will hear of it soon . Aiming for 1000mph on land!

I have learnt a heck of a lot from KSP. A deep understanding of orbital mechanics, launch vehicle design, etc. Incredibly educational game for me.

[K^2]

Anything you can learn from KSP you honestly ought to know by the time you finish undergrad in either engineering or physics, and most of it you really should have learned in school. If you are not capable of solving a central potential problem completely or derive Tsiolkovsky rocket equation, there are serious gaps in your education. I can see how the game makes some of these things more intuitive, and maybe highlights some things you would not have thought of, and that's certainly useful, but it shouldn't be anything new.

All of the serious stuff in terms of satellite guidance is going to be related to perturbations of central potential problem or many-body interactions. Similarly, anything to do with aerodynamics, re-entries, and actual propulsion will involve a lot more topics in fluid dynamics. All of these things are simply ignored in KSP.

[legoheli]

Good day, gents.

I'm currently getting my bachelor of mechanical engineering, but when I have that I'll be headed for Stockholm to finish off with a master of aerospace engineering (since the two degrees are more or less the same the first three years, this is possible).

[Epic DaVinci]

I currently work as a quality Inspector for Airbus, moving into Inspection after 8 years of Engineering. Specialising in Composites.

[Yourself]

I actually have my Bachelor's in aerospace and did most of a Master's but never finished it. I currently work as a software engineer for a company that makes flight simulators, but I will likely be going off to work at Google for a while in a couple months (or more than likely not, flight simulation is way cooler). It's a long and complicated story.

Edited August 11, 2013 by Yourself

[B787_300]

I am a sophmore/junior at ERAU Aerospace Engineering Astronautics focus...

I plan to major in aerospace engineering at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.

see you there maybe

[cloudx]

I'm going to be entering USAFA class of 2018, so yes, I'll be studying Aerospace.

[Mars90000000]

I'm a Chemical Engineer.

[B787_300]

psh you and your Chem E degree... always making solutions

[Mars90000000]

psh you and your Chem E degree... always making solutions

I'm doing my PhD now :3

[B787_300]

it was supposed to be punny... solutions....

[mobious44]

I am a sophmore/junior at ERAU Aerospace Engineering Astronautics focus...

see you there maybe

Really? That's pretty awesome. Mind if I pick your brain about the college and courses a bit? I haven't visited the campus yet and I'd love to hear what everything is like from a student's perspective, one not trying to sway my decision that is.

[rpayne88]

I intend to once I get out of community college and improve in math. I guess no more trial and error IRL for obvious reasons.

[AE_student]

Wow, lots of responses here. Sorry I haven't been back in a while. I guess I didn't mention that I'm a non traditional student, working on my second career. Often family life gets in the way of my online endeavors, not to mention trying to keep up with school and a job at the same time.

Thank you for the suggestions, and the knowledge sharing, and the words of encouragement. I asked this question because, wayyyyy back in the day when I started working in IT and was going to college for that, we used server simulators in conjunction with projects to develop or own networks/lan/wans etc. Likewise when doing security stuff or programming, often our instructors attempted to utilize games or fun simulations as learning tools. Which was why I thought Kerbal might show up at some point in my AE pursuit, perhaps as a first year rudimentary team building project. Although I'll probably check out Orbiter and Microsoft Space Simulator.

I look forward to getting to KU for AE core classes. Right now I'm chugging away at gen eds at my local community college, but I have a set path and general idea when I'll be there. I'm also thinking of going right for my Masters, possibly in Mechanical Engineering, or perhaps Astro physics. It was my IT career working at JSC that convinced me to go back and actually work for NASA doing the real thing.

[rpayne88]

I intend to go into AE after I'm done at community college.

[TanC]

AE graduate from ERAU DAB campus here. Currently working with an airline company. KSP is more fun than "leg up". Sure helps to visualize maneuvers in space though. Also the occasional "what if" scenarios that crops up from time to time after watching launches.

[Odyssey]

NC State Aerospace Engineering - Class of 2008

Master's Degree - class of 2010

Go Pack!

With the space economy being what it is, KSP is one of the few places I actually get to practice what I always wanted to be doing anyway.

[linkxsc]

Does dropping out of a ME degree with 1 class left because I had to go earn some more money to take that class. (Next year man, next year) And scratchbuilding rc planes count as AE? No? Shucks. Guess Im not invited to this club.