Purdue University is standing at the forefront of expanding space exploration and a future economy with the creation of the first-ever Comprehensive Space Engineering Degrees Program in the country. The program combines both a new online master’s degree in space systems engineering and a new space engineering undergraduate certificate to the established array of cutting-edge programs in the College of Engineering.
“More than ever, the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics is producing students with a firm grounding in how to engineer space systems,” says Bill Crossley, the Uhrig and Vournas Head of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “This comprehensive program is tailored to the demands of engineering modern space systems, ensuring our graduates are equipped to tackle the more complex challenges of tomorrow.”
The degree offers new opportunities in engineering education that both students and industry see as important moving forward. The degree provides deeper immersion and proficiency in modern multifaceted engineering space systems, with returning graduates who are already active industry professions expected to make up many of the students.
Further bolstering the aerospace program is a new space engineering undergraduate certificate. Professor Steven Collicott says the certificate is considered a supplemental program for undergraduates at the West Lafayette campus that demonstrates a student’s interest in space engineering while pursuing another major.
The interdisciplinary aspect of the undergraduate certificate will help answer the unrealized and ever-expanding needs of space flight beyond propulsion. Challenges continue to exist in areas ranging from biology and agronomy to biomedical engineering, psychology and more.
“The Comprehensive Space Engineering Degrees Program is unique in showing the strength of aerospace education at Purdue,” Collicott says. “The space engineering certificate and online master’s degree are integral parts of that program.”
