William B
- Research Program Mentor
PhD candidate at University of Texas Austin (UT Austin)
Expertise
Orbital Mechanics, Spacecraft Mission Design, Spacecraft Trajectory Optimization, Stability Analysis, Orbit Determination, Kalman Filters, Analytical Methods, Optimal Control
Bio
Hi! My name is William Brandenburg, and I am a third year Ph.D student in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. My research focuses on spacecraft trajectory design and optimization and I currently working on the automation of optimal gravity assist trajectories to planetary moons such as Saturn's Enceladus and Jupiter's Europa. During my internships with NASA's Johnson Space Center, I worked on the implementation and analysis of entry descent and landing algorithms for the Artemis missions. Furthermore, during my internships with Lockheed Martin Space I created tools and programs to find low delta-v trajectories to the outer planets. I love diving into new research topics and figuring out new and better ways to solve problems. A little bit about me, I love to cycle, and I ride around 200-250 miles a week. I compete at an amateur professional level and spend way too much of my free time riding.Project ideas
Stability In The Three Body Problem
Analysis of the three body problem is a great entry point into orbital mechanics. As there are no analytical solutions, you could start by writing a program to numerically integrate the equations of motion governing the problem. From there you can examine known periodic solutions and examine their stability to small perturbations. Periodic solutions are solutions that return to the exact same point after some amount of time, T, has passed. This problem would allow you to learn about the physics governing orbital motion, numerical integration, and stability analysis. There are a lot of different possible ways to approach this problem, and it would be up to you to decide how best to solve it.