Studies in Space Exploration
PostgraduateSWI-AST800172025
Course information for 2025 intake View information for 2024 course intake
Launch through the cosmos and trace the history and progress of space exploration. Navigate the risks and benefits. Observe and explore crewed versus robotic galactic missions. Unearth ethical and legal debates. Probe public perceptions.
- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Enrol by
- 24 Aug 2025
- Entry requirements
- Part of a degree
- Duration
- 13 weeks
- Price from
- $3,220
- Upfront cost
- $0
- Loan available
- FEE-HELP available
Studies in Space Exploration
About this subject
At the completion of this subject students will be able to:
- Identify and describe the basic principles, issues and science goals in space exploration
- Discuss and explain the history and development of space exploration, especially issues such as manned versus unmanned space exploration, spacecraft design, launch and navigation, imaging and remote sensing, and the biomechanics of space flight, in a non-technical way understandable to the wider public
- Recognise how the social implications of space science and an analysis of the costs, risks & benefits of space exploration, including the ethical and legal implications of topics such as the use of radioisotope fuel sources, 'space junk' and mining rights in space
- Use problem solving skills to explain solutions to problems in space exploration
- Design and create a research project using credible sources of astronomical information and research articles and/or observational means.
- Ground-based space exploration: telescopes, detectors, limitations of ground-based observations
- Unmanned space exploration: orbiting observatories, planetary missions, observing asteroids, comets, the sun, the heliopause and beyond
- People in space: manned versus robotic missions, space stations, colonisation and terraforming
- Evolution of human space flight: from fireworks to the V-2 rocket, Sputnik to Gargarin, to the Moon or bust, from Skylab to the Space Station.
- Spacecraft design, launch and navigation: a probe for every purpose, lift-off and boosters, docking and course correction, navigating in space.
- Imaging and remote sensing: instrumentation, telemetry, communication, space observatories, data processing and manipulation
- Fuelling interplanetary missions: energy sources and techniques used in past, present and planned space missions, designs and intended uses.
- Costs, risks and benefits: scientific, legal and ethical dimensions: the science goals, public perception, legal implications and ethical consid'ns
This subject presents the basic principles, issues and scientific goals in space exploration, and traces its history and development with particular reference to manned versus unmanned space exploration, spacecraft design, launch and navigation, imaging and remote sensing. Public perception of space science and analysis of the costs, risks and benefits of space exploration are discussed with special reference to ethical and legal implications of topics, such as the use of radioisotope fuel sources, 'space junk' and mining rights in space.
- Newsgroups (30%)
- Project (50%)
- Online tests (20%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
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Entry requirements
Part of a degree
To enrol in this subject you must be accepted into one of the following degrees:
Elective
- OUA-PSU-GCE-2025 - Postgraduate Single Subjects
- SWI-AST-GCE-2025 - Graduate Certificate of Science (Astronomy)
Additional requirements
No additional requirements
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.
Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.
Related degrees
Once you’ve completed this subject it can be credited towards one of the following courses
PostgraduateOUA-PSU-GCE
Graduate Certificate of Science (Astronomy)
PostgraduateSWI-AST-GCE