Based on a long engineering experience, this book offers a comprehensive and state-of-the-art analysis of aerodynamic and flight mechanic entry topics. This updated edition had new chapters on Re-entry on Mars mission, flight quality, rarefied aerodynamics and re-entry accuracy. In addition, it provides a large set of application exercises and solutions.

Ballistic Missile and Space Technology, Volume IV: Re-Entry and Vehicle Design focuses on the advancements of processes, methodologies, and technologies involved in re-entry and vehicle design, including hypersonics, material structures, propulsion, and communications. The selection first offers information on the pyrolysis of plastics in a high vacuum arc image furnace and aerothermodynamic feasibility of graphite for hypersonic glide vehicles. Discussions focus on aerothermochemical behavior of graphite, transient heat conduction, equilibrium glide trajectory, and apparatus and pyrolysis procedure. The text then takes a look at an engineering analysis of the weights of ablating systems for manned reentry vehicles and trajectories of lifting bodies entering planetary atmospheres at shallow angles. The manuscript ponders on propulsive control of atmospheric entry lifting trajectories, re-entry engineering mechanics, and rocket casing behavior predicted by laboratory tests. Topics include description of testing program, full-scale casing results, camera design, theoretical correlation, approximate thrust vector optimization, and propellant weight estimation. The selection is a dependable reference for astronauts and researchers interested in re-entry and vehicle design.

This text presents a comprehensive treatise on the dynamics of atmospheric re-entry. All mathematical concepts are fully explained in the text, so that there is no need for any additional reference materials. The first half of the text deals with the fundamental concepts and practical applications of the atmospheric model, Earths gravitational field and form, axis transformations, force and moment equations, Keplerian motion, and re-entry mechanics. The second half includes special topics such as re-entry decoys, maneuvering re-entry vehicles, angular motion, flowfields around re-entering bodies, error analysis, and inertial guidance.

Orbital Mechanics for Engineering Students, Second Edition, provides an introduction to the basic concepts of space mechanics. These include vector kinematics in three dimensions; Newton's laws of motion and gravitation; relative motion; the vector-based solution of the classical two-body problem; derivation of Kepler's equations; orbits in three dimensions; preliminary orbit determination; and orbital maneuvers. The book also covers relative motion and the two-impulse rendezvous problem; interplanetary mission design using patched conics; rigid-body dynamics used to characterize the attitude of a space vehicle; satellite attitude dynamics; and the characteristics and design of multi-stage launch vehicles. Each chapter begins with an outline of key concepts and concludes with problems that are based on the material covered. This text is written for undergraduates who are studying orbital mechanics for the first time and have completed courses in physics, dynamics, and mathematics, including differential equations and applied linear algebra. Graduate students, researchers, and experienced practitioners will also find useful review materials in the book. - NEW: Reorganized and improved discusions of coordinate systems, new discussion on perturbations and quarternions - NEW: Increased coverage of attitude dynamics, including new Matlab algorithms and examples in chapter 10 - New examples and homework problems