Course Websites

AE 498 PDO - Planetary Defense

Last offered Spring 2026

Official Description

Subject offerings of new and developing areas of knowledge in aerospace engineering intended to augment the existing curriculum. See Class Schedule or department course information for topics and prerequisite. Course Information: 1 to 4 undergraduate hours. 1 to 4 graduate hours. May be repeated in the same or separate terms if topics vary to a maximum of 9 undergraduate hours or 12 graduate hours.

Section Description

This course serves as an introduction to Planetary Defense. Topics covered include near-Earth asteroid origin, composition and dynamics, orbit determination and impact monitoring, technical aspects of various asteroid orbit deflection techniques such as kinetic impact, nuclear deflection, ion beam shepherds, and gravity tractors, as well as a discussion of national and international planetary defense programs including relevant space missions. Prerequisites AE 352, AE 402. Recommended: AE 370 Restricted to online non-degree, online, MSAE, online MSME, online MSCEE and online MCS students. For more details on this course section, please see http://engineering.illinois.edu/online/courses/. Non-Degree students may enroll on a space-available basis with consent of the Graduate Program Coordinator (ae-grad@illinois.edu).

Related Faculty

Subject Area

  • Aerospace Engineering

Course Description

This course serves as an introduction to Planetary Defense. Topics covered include near-Earth asteroid origin, composition and dynamics, orbit determination and impact monitoring, technical aspects of various asteroid orbit deflection techniques such as kinetic impact, nuclear deflection, ion beam shepherds, and gravity tractors, as well as a discussion of national and international planetary defense programs including relevant space missions.

Credit Hours

4 hours

Prerequisites

AE 352, AE 402. Recommended: AE 370

TitleSectionCRNTypeHoursTimesDaysLocationInstructor
Planetary DefensePDO57464ONL4 -    Siegfried Eggl