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Orbital Mechanics For Engineers: A Practical Guide to Spacecraft Trajectories, Maneuvers, and Mission Design
Paperback
Technology & EngineeringPhysics
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Publisher: Independently Published
Pages: 448
Weight: 2.27
Height: 0.91 Width: 8.50 Depth: 11.00
Language: English
Most orbital mechanics resources end exactly where practical astrodynamics begins.
Every textbook teaches the two-body problem. Fewer connect the derivation to the kind of engineering decision a mission analyst actually faces: sizing a maneuver, predicting orbital decay, planning a rendezvous, evaluating a launch window. The gap between a well-understood equation and a usable engineering tool is where most treatments of orbital mechanics fall short - and where early-career engineers find themselves stalled.
Orbital Mechanics for Engineers is written to close that gap. Every derivation in this book is developed with the goal of producing a tool that can be applied to a real engineering scenario. Every worked example reflects a realistic problem with complete unit-tracked calculations. Where a simplifying assumption is made, the text names it, explains what it costs, and identifies where a more detailed model would be required. Sixteen chapters build the discipline from Newton's law to a fully verified mission design - with no gaps left for another book to fill.
After working through this book, you will be able to:- Derive the equations of orbital motion from first principles and understand the physical meaning of the conserved quantities that determine every orbit's shape and size.
- Convert freely between state vectors and classical orbital elements, transform between ECI, ECEF, and topocentric reference frames, and compute look angles from a ground station to a satellite.
- Solve Kepler's equation by Newton-Raphson iteration to propagate spacecraft position in time, and extend the same approach to hyperbolic departure trajectories.
- Determine orbital elements from observations using the Gibbs method, solve Lambert's problem in both its orbit-determination and trajectory-design forms, and understand the limits of each approach.
- Quantify the effects of Earth's oblateness, atmospheric drag, third-body gravity, and solar radiation pressure, and understand which perturbation dominates in which orbital regime.
- Design Hohmann and bi-elliptic transfers, plane-change maneuvers, low-thrust Edelbaum transfers, and interplanetary trajectories using the patched-conic approximation including gravity-assist flybys.
- Apply the rocket equation to construct a complete mission delta-v budget and evaluate the propellant implications of chemical versus electric propulsion choices.
- And more...
Comprehensive coverage includes:
- Two-body problem and conic sections
- Classical orbital elements and state-vector conversion
- Kepler's equation and time-of-flight
- Reference frames and sidereal time
- Orbit determination (Gibbs method, Lambert's problem, angles-only, least-squares)
- J₂ perturbations, nodal regression, apsidal drift, and sun-synchronous orbit design
- Atmospheric drag and orbital decay
- Third-body effects and solar radiation pressure
- Hohmann and bi-elliptic transfers
- And More...
- Upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in aerospace or astronautical engineering who need both derivation and applied meaning in a single volume
- Early-career aerospace engineers and mission analysts who need a dependable engineering reference for the complete scope of orbital mechanics
- Practising engineers and technical professionals who require a rigorous, self-contained astrodynamics resource that connects every result to real mission design practice
This is the orbital mechanics engineering guide written for the reader who needs the derivation, the example, and the engineering judgment all in the same book.
Get your copy and build the structured command of spacecraft trajectories, maneuvers, and mission design that modern aerospace practice demands.
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