What Type of Engineering is Best for Designing a Spacecraft?

[Inquiring_Mike]

I'm a Canadian student that is going into engineering next year, and I don't know what type of engineering I should go into. In Canada, some schools offer a common first year and you choose your discipline in the second year. The thing is that these schools do not offer aerospace engineering(only 2 schools that do). I've been seriously thinking of taking aerospace, however I might also want to take mechanical, materials or civil. Which of these do you recommend?

 

[russ_watters]

Mechanical of course! Clearly however, I am biased. What do you want to do with yourself after you leave school? And how important is finding a job easily?

 

[Inquiring_Mike]

I'm considering getting my masters right after I graduate, however I'm unsure. To me, finding a job is quite important.

 

[russ_watters]

The reason I asked that question is that a more diverse education is probably better for finding a job. There are more Mech E jobs than Aero jobs for example.

 

[Phobos]

Aero is closely tied to Mech. Eng. (& the fluid mechanics subset of Mech Eng.)

 

[Inquiring_Mike]

Okay... So do you think that I could graduate with a mech. eng. degree and take some aero courses that will allow me to get a job in aerospace eng.?

 

[enigma]

What part of aero are you interrested in?

It's a very broad field...

 

[Inquiring_Mike]

I'm thinking about design of spacecraft ...

 

[enigma]

What part of the spacecraft ?

If you want to design the engines, you'll probably need to take some rocketry courses.

For structural components, ME will be fine. Just take some courses with composites or smart materials.

For avionics, you'll need some computing and controls classes.

etc.

Spacecraft are huge engineering projects. No-one except for the upper upper level people (who don't do any designing anyway) usually have a hand in more than a single part.