Guidance, Navigation & Control
What system uses accelerometers and gyroscopes to estimate position without external signals?
What is Inertial Navigation System (INS)
What is the term for the speed range between Mach 1.2 and Mach 5
What is Supersonic
What is the name of the point where gravitational forces between two bodies balance out?
What is a Lagrange Point
Who broke the sound barrier in level flight in 1947?
Who is Chuck Yeager
What was the first reusable spacecraft?
What is the Space Shuttle
What control surface on an aircraft primarily governs yaw?
What is a Rudder
What is the name of the expansion wave that occurs when supersonic flow turns outward?
What is Prandtl-Meyer Expansion
What is the term for the trajectory that loops around a planet before heading to another?
What is a Flyby Trajectory
What NASA mathematician was portrayed in "Hidden Figures" for her work on orbital mechanics?
Who is Katherine Johnson
What mission landed a probe on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon?
What is Huygens
What is the name of the algorithm used to fuse sensor data for attitude estimation?
What is the Kalman Filter
What is the term for the sudden drop in pressure and temperature across a shock wave?
What is Shock Discontinuity
What is the name of the method that breaks orbital motion into conic segments for analysis?
What is Patched Conic Approximation
Who designed the X-15 rocket plane used for high-altitude research?
Who is Scott Crossfield
What spacecraft was the first to enter interstellar space?
Voyager 1
What is the term for the feedback loop that adjusts control inputs based on error signals?
What is PID Controller
What is the name of the aerodynamic design principle that minimizes drag at transonic speeds?
What is the Area Rule
What is the term for the velocity required to escape the Sun’s gravity from Earth orbit?
What is Solar Escape Velocity
What engineer developed the turbojet engine independently of Frank Whittle?
Who is Hans von Ohain
What mission deployed the first rover on the Moon in 1970?
What is Lunokhod 1
What quaternion-based method avoids singularities in 3D spacecraft attitude representation?
What is Quaternion Kinematics
What is the term for the Mach number at which flow becomes choked in a nozzle?
What is Critical Mach Number
What is the name of the transfer orbit used to rendezvous with a planet at opposition?
What is a Bi-Elliptic Transfer
Who was the first person to orbit Earth?
Who is Yuri Gagarin
What was the name of the first private spacecraft to dock with the ISS?
What is SpaceX Dragon