Rensselaer Notables - Brice Cassenti

Brice N. Cassenti, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Engineering and Science

Professor Brice Cassenti has been curious about astronomy, science, and math since he was a child. This curiosity has led him on a fascinating journey as an engineer. His favorite course to teach at Rensselaer is Celestial Mechanics, which he also refers to as astrodynamics. Dr. Cassenti firmly believes that most of his students register for this course out of curiosity. Aerospace engineers are particularly interested in the course, and it would be a very valuable course for any aspiring astronaut.

Celestial Mechanics provides an introduction to orbits and perturbations, exterior ballistics, powered flight trajectories, and space flight trajectories, as well as the mechanics involved in all astrodynamics. The course addresses numerous “how” and “why” questions for those who want to know the details about space flight – what it’s like and how it feels; solutions to problems in sending objects and people into orbit – cost and weight issues, and precise calculations to rendezvous spacecraft; and interplanetary exploration – learning about motion and gravitation in space.

Professor Cassenti admits that Celestial Mechanics is harder than it looks, and that it is really not that easy to launch something into orbit, change speeds in orbit, and reenter the atmosphere. However, this challenging research can lead to knowledge and inventions that provide incremental improvements in this field of study. There are numerous applications of Celestial Mechanics in communication satellites, spyware, manned and unmanned spacecraft, long-range missiles, “Star Wars,” and space exploration.

Graduate students in the course are required to complete a project, and Dr. Cassenti says he has yet to have a student who didn’t finish a project because students always find the projects to be so interesting. Some of the projects have examined missions to Mars, Mercury, Neptune, and other planets; lost space probes and possible reasons for their misguidance; trips to the moon and the rendezvous and docking aspects involved; and suborbital flights for tourists, such as the SpaceShipOne experiment. “The projects always spark the imagination, and that,” according to Professor Cassenti, “is a good way to learn.”

Dr. Cassenti brings over forty years of research experience to Rensselaer as an engineer at Bell Telephone Laboratories, United Technologies Research Center, and Pratt & Whitney. If given the opportunity, Professor Cassenti would gladly be a space tourist. “I believe taking the risks of space travel is more about curiosity than bravery.” Are you curious to learn more about Celestial Mechanics? Register for this popular Rensselaer course with Professor Cassenti while you have the opportunity!