Space Science & Robotics Degree at Aberystwyth

Space Science & Robotics Degree - 3 years BSc Degree (FH56)
Space Science & Robotics Degree - 4 years MPhys Degree (FH5P)

Space Science and Robotics Degree

Unmanned exploration of the solar system has been one of the outstanding successes of the space age. Most of these spacecraft, orbiters, landers and rovers have been either fully command-controlled from the Earth or have been controlled by on-board programs. Future missions, and particularly rovers landed on Mars and more distant planets and moons, will require an ability to act independently of command-control and to adapt their behaviour to their surroundings.

This Space Science and Robotics degree course combines the expertise in solar system and space physics of the Aberyswyth Institute of Mathematics and Physics with the space robotics and artificial intelligence expertise of the Department of Computer Science, to consider the challenges to be met in robotic exploration of the solar system and their solutions. This new degree course, one of only a few such Space Science and Robotics degrees in the UK, will expose you to the foundations of space exploration and will equip you with skills that meet the requirements and challenges of the space industry, as well as the planning and development of future space physics and astrophysics missions.

Space Science and Robotics Degree Year 1

Year 1 of the Space Science and Robotics degree course is flexibly designed according to your A level experience: so that if you have a strong background in Computer Science, you get to fill in any gaps in your knowledge of Physics; whereas if your strength is in classical Physics you get to study modules which deal with the basics of computer programming. If you did both Computer Science and Physics at A level, there is even more scope for you to choose from the really exciting range of Option Modules.

Space Science and Robotics Degree Years 2 + 3

Years 2 + 3 of Space Science and Robotics degree build towards the Major Project which is the culmination of your studies: the opportunity, working with Space Physicsists and  Robotics specialists at the forefront of current practice, to design and execute a project which is undergirded by a thoroughoing knowledge of Astronomy and Astrophysics and which uses the very latest in computer command-controlled spacebot technology.

Careers Related to your Aberystwyth Space Science and Robotics Degree Course

This course specialises, above all, in the inculcation of excellence. Several of our graduates have gone on, as you would expect, to specialise either in Space Robotics or in one or other of the Astrophysics or Robotics specialisms, continuing postgraduate research here at Aberystwyth and elsewhere. Several, also, have gone on to careers not so directly linked to the course. However, prospective employers who look at graduates of this Space Science and Robotics degree know that they have worked at the very forefront of modern technology; that they have had to have the imagination, the technical skill and the sheer endurance to solve concrete and intricate problems in innovative and ingenious ways; and that they have worked well both as individuals and as members of highly motivated teams. All these are assets which employers prize highly.