cranfield – William Easdown Babb

MSc complete: I’ve received my thesis mark

weasdown — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 10:05:27 +0000

I’m really pleased to have received a mark of 75% on my MSc thesis at Cranfield University and 72% across the whole course. My project studied on-orbit servicing, performing a literature review to evaluate progress so far before defining an example mission architecture with the OneWeb constellation as targets. I then assessed how future servicing missions could be enabled using currently available navigation, grappling and robotics hardware. It was really exciting to dive into this emerging part of the space industry and see how applications like satellite hardware replacement could trigger a huge shift in the space economy.

You can read my thesis in full by clicking the button below, or you can read all my reports and papers here, including a short paper based on the thesis.

Download MSc thesis

LAPL: I’ve Started Flight Training!

weasdown — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 09:17:13 +0000

Yesterday I began a fun new adventure with the start of flight training towards the Light Aircraft Pilot’s License (LAPL) at Cranfield Flying School. The school is based at my university’s airport, so is only a handy 10-minute walk from my flat, making it ideal for afternoon flying lessons when I don’t have any lectures.

Google Earth view of Cranfield University and Airport

In yesterday’s lesson, I performed the taxied to the runway, performed the takeoff, then once at cruising height learned about trim, power and the use of flaps. I also did most of the approach to landing, with my instructor taking control for the round out once we were about 20 metres or so off the ground.

It was a fantastic lesson to get started and I’m looking forward to my next lesson tomorrow and the rest of my lessons needed to get the 30 hours for my LAPL. I’ll be adding more flying blog posts to the new flying category as I go, so be sure to join me on the journey.

A New Chapter Begins: I’ve Arrived at Cranfield!

weasdown — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 15:29:43 +0000

Just a short post today to say that I’ve started the next and probably final phase of my academic journey, with my arrival at Cranfield University. Over the next year here, I’ll be working towards an MSc in Astronautics and Space Engineering, with around 100 other students.

This is something I’ve been looking forward to for about 18 months, since I made the choice to downgrade my MEng at the University of Bath to a BEng and lose a year of the course so I could go do a specialised Master’s elsewhere.

So, join me as I embark on this big adventure. I’ll try to post highlights on my blog, but if you have any questions at any point, wing them my way on Twitter, @weasdown, or by using my contact form.