Aerospace Eng at Bristol or Imperial?

I am pretty stuck in where I should put my first choice, as I am applying for 2015 entry.
I really want a career working on Spacecraft design or something similar involving spacecraft at least which is why I am picking Aerospace Engineering (However I am beginning to doubt that i should pick this now and maybe I should pick the Spacecraft Engineering course at Southampton?). The problem is that Bristol do specific Space modules in 3rd and 4th year. Whereas, from what I've seen on the ICL website (Haven't been to the open day, only just considering it now) on aeronautical engineering they do not do any space modules whatsoever (correct me if I'm wrong). Would I be more likely to get a job in the space industry if I got my degree at Bristol or Imperial? Any advice would be good as I was deadset on Aero at Bristol, but now I am beginning to change my mind which is not good at all :frown:

Reply 1

0le

21

There are two space modules at Bristol are Space Systems and Advanced Space Systems. All in all, they are pretty basic (in terms of difficulty but do cover a lot. But you should be able to do a space design project for your major design project and that may have ties with Astrium.

I had a look at the Southampton modules and they don't look like anything THAT great only in 4th year you get to specialize and some of those are options. Spacecraft Propulsion is covered in the Bristol units a fair bit, as is instrumentation. For the structural design/ engineering design ones from Southampton, they are covered a little, but if you do the space project in bristol and focus on the structures part, you'll obviously cover them in detail too.

My advice is to think very carefully about what you want to do. At present, I would expect that any aeronautical engineering degree will put you in good stead to get into the space industry. Have you also thought about doing Physics BEng (an choosing space related units) and then doing an MSc in Spacecraft design (if that is possible)? Finally, I'd say that all of those universities will offer very good engineering programmes. Imperial will have more prestige I guess, but Bristol and Southampton will probably have more links to Engineering companies.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 2

username638250

7

Original post by djpailo

There are two space modules at Bristol are Space Systems and Advanced Space Systems. All in all, they are pretty basic (in terms of difficulty but do cover a lot. But you should be able to do a space design project for your major design project and that may have ties with Astrium.

I had a look at the Southampton modules and they don't look like anything THAT great only in 4th year you get to specialize and some of those are options. Spacecraft Propulsion is covered in the Bristol units a fair bit, as is instrumentation. For the structural design/ engineering design ones from Southampton, they are covered a little, but if you do the space project in bristol and focus on the structures part, you'll obviously cover them in detail too.

My advice is to think very carefully about what you want to do. At present, I would expect that any aeronautical engineering degree will put you in good stead to get into the space industry. Have you also thought about doing Physics BEng (an choosing space related units) and then doing an MSc in Spacecraft design (if that is possible)? Finally, I'd say that all of those universities will offer very good engineering programmes. Imperial will have more prestige I guess, but Bristol and Southampton will probably have more links to Engineering companies.

Why do you say so? Imperial is, after all, known for its Engineering in particular...

Reply 3

Chris654

OP

5

Original post by djpailo

There are two space modules at Bristol are Space Systems and Advanced Space Systems. All in all, they are pretty basic (in terms of difficulty but do cover a lot. But you should be able to do a space design project for your major design project and that may have ties with Astrium.

I had a look at the Southampton modules and they don't look like anything THAT great only in 4th year you get to specialize and some of those are options. Spacecraft Propulsion is covered in the Bristol units a fair bit, as is instrumentation. For the structural design/ engineering design ones from Southampton, they are covered a little, but if you do the space project in bristol and focus on the structures part, you'll obviously cover them in detail too.

My advice is to think very carefully about what you want to do. At present, I would expect that any aeronautical engineering degree will put you in good stead to get into the space industry. Have you also thought about doing Physics BEng (an choosing space related units) and then doing an MSc in Spacecraft design (if that is possible)? Finally, I'd say that all of those universities will offer very good engineering programmes. Imperial will have more prestige I guess, but Bristol and Southampton will probably have more links to Engineering companies.

I definitely want to do an engineering degree, I haven't really thought about doing physics along with space units, and don't think I would consider that (as I feel there would be more chance of a job with an engineering degree than a physics one, but that is just my opinion). Thanks for your reply though it has helped me a bit, anyone elses opinion on this would be great too as I would love to hear what anyone else has to say too :smile: