Product Details
Fundamentals of Astrodynamics

Fundamentals of Astrodynamics
By Roger R. Bate, Donald D. Mueller, Jerry E. White

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Product Description

Teaching text developed by U.S. Air Force Academy and designed as a first course emphasizes the universal variable formulation. Develops the basic two-body and n-body equations of motion; orbit determination; classical orbital elements, coordinate transformations; differential correction; more. Includes specialized applications to lunar and interplanetary flight, example problems, exercises. 1971 edition.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #36845 in Books
  • Published on: 1971-06-01
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 455 pages

Customer Reviews

Quality Service5
I received a quality product in a timely fashion. I couldn't ask for anything better.

OK but not that great3
The book is a classic in the field of astrodynamics, but that is exactly what it is: outdated. The book is designed with engineering students in mind, who do not have a deep understanding of physics and especially mathematics (calculus isn't the summit of mathematics!). The book ends where it starts to get interesting (real-life situations). Yes, many books only deal with ideal situations, which can be solved explicitly, but a book on astrodynamics naturally means that you are dealing with the physical reality of imperfection, so deal with it.

However, if you don't know anything of astrodynamics and you are interested in an introduction this is a good (and cheap, thanks to Dover publications' reprints) place to start. Don't be fooled, however, it's not a book on orbital mechanics, since there is a lot more mathematics to orbital mechanics than is shown in this book (e.g. numerical methods, perturbations and averaging methods). A very comprehensive book on astrodynamics is by Vallado, for those who want a complete overview and lots of pseudocode computer programmes (although even that book is not state-of-the-art).

Good book for orbital mechanics only4
The book presents a very detailed introduction to orbital mechanics. However, it does not deal with spacecraft rotations, which are an important part of spacecraft motion. Therefore, the book is advisable if you are planning to study only orbital mechanics. I would recommend that you refer to another text book if you want a more complete introduction to astrodynamics.