OVERVIEW
Space mission concepts live or die at the design review. The Space Mission Design Exercise places you in that moment—tasked with designing a credible mission and defending it under scrutiny. In this hands-on workshop, you are given a realistic Request for Proposal (RFP) or Announcement of Opportunity (AO) and organized into a mission design team. Your objective: translate mission goals into a defensible architecture that meets performance objectives while balancing cost, risk, and operational constraints. Every assumption must be justified. Every design decision and trade-off must be explained.

The workshop follows a structured systems engineering approach—interpreting requirements, defining concepts, evaluating architectures, and analyzing trade space. Short, just-in-time instruction introduces tools and techniques exactly when needed, but most of the time is spent designing, debating, and refining your mission.

Teams use mission analysis methods and structured engineering artifacts to quantify trade-offs and strengthen architectural coherence. Basic orbit design and mission design tools are provided to facilitate detailed analysis. MBSE concepts are introduced where they clarify relationships and improve reasoning, without turning the exercise into tool training.

The course culminates in a formal Mission Concept Review (MCR). You present, defend, and respond to hard questions about feasibility, risk, and value—gaining practical confidence in making and defending architecture decisions.

WHO IS THIS FOR?
Are you developing mission concepts? Evaluating competing architectures? Preparing for real design reviews? This course is designed for systems engineers, principal investigators, subsystem engineers, and project managers who need hands-on experience making and defending mission-level decisions.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of this course participants will be able to:

• Understand the overall space mission design process
• Apply systems engineering tools and techniques to a real-world space project
• Apply agile approaches to enhance teamwork and collaboration
• Apply project engineering skills:
• System engineering management
• Technical integrity
• Technical leadership
• Integrate all elements of a successful mission
• Establish a process to refine requirements
• Define parameters to meet mission objectives at acceptable cost and risk

COURSE FEES (Sign-In To Register)
- AIAA Member Price: $995 USD
- AIAA Student Member Price: $495 USD
- Non-Member Price: $1,195 USD

Course Series:
In Fall 2026, AIAA and TSTI are offering a series of courses focused on Space Systems Engineering. While courses are completely self-contained and can be taken on their own, those students wishing to deepen their knowledge may be interested in additional course study:

• Space Systems Verification and Validation – Online Short Course (28 Sept–1 Oct 2026)
  
• Mission Design Workshop: A Hands-on Concurrent Space Systems Engineering Workshop (26–29 October 2026)
• Applied Model-Based Systems Engineering – Online Short Course (16–19 November 2026)

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COURSE TOPICS

• Course Introduction
• Foundations
• Project Scenario Introduction
• Systems Engineering Overview
• Agile Concepts and Methods
• Project Approach
• Introduction to Model-based Systems Engineering (MBSE)
• Space Mission Analysis and Design
• FireSAT Case Study and Architecture
• Tools and Techniques
• SMAD Worksheet
• Astro-Max Orbit Design Tool
• MBSE (Optional)
• Application Workshop
• Final Presentation

INSTRUCTOR

The course will be instructed by an aerospace systems expert from Teaching Science and Technology Inc. (TSTI).

Dr. Jerry Jon Sellers, is the author of Understanding Space: An Introduction to Astronautics, and is a contributing author and editor of Applied Space Systems Engineering, author of the new chapter in ASSE on Applied Model-based Systems Engineering, as well as a contributing author of Human Spaceflight Analysis and Design. He has over 30 years of space systems experience including Guidance & On-board Navigation Officer in Space Shuttle Mission Control; Assistant Professor of Astronautics at the U.S. Air Force Academy; and Chief of Astronautics for the Air Force European Office of Aerospace Research & Development. He is an Associate Fellow at AIAA and the former Chairman of the AIAA Space Systems Technical Committee. He is an elected member of the International Academy of Astronautics and is a Certified Scaled-Agile Program Consultant. He is also an adjunct professor at Stevens Institute of Technology and certified Scaled-Agile Framework (SAFe) Program Consultant (SPC5). Jerry is an elected member of the International Academy of Astronautics.

Course Delivery and Materials

• The course lectures will be delivered via a Zoom virtual classroom.
• Classes will not be recorded so live attendance is necessary.
• You can test your connection here: https://zoom.us/test
• Connection information will be provided to registrants near the course start date.
• Each registrant will receive:
• Course Notes: A complete set of course notes with copies of all slides used in the presentations.
• An e-copy of the course text Applied Space Systems Engineering.
• No part of these materials may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted, unless for course participants. All rights reserved.
• Courseware: Innoslate cloud-based tool (free trial license). Internet access required.

Classroom Hours: 20 classroom hours / 2.0 CEU/PDH

Cancellation Policy: A refund less a $50.00 cancellation fee will be assessed for all cancellations made in writing prior to 14 days before the start of the event. After that time, no refunds will be provided.

Contact: Please contact Lisa Le or Customer Service if you have any questions about the course or group discounts.

Frequently Asked Questions