Fundamentals of Astrodynamics by Roger R. Bate, Donald D. Mueller, Jerry E. White Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Fundamentals of Astrodynamics
Book Review: The basics made simple
Summary: 5 Stars
Affectionately referred to as BMW (from the author names), this book was the required text for my intro spaceflight mechanics course in college. Not only did I do just about every problem in the book (which helped me blow away the final), but over the next 15 years I kept coming back to it for quick reference. Some of my commercial products contain simple Kepler solvers and orbit integrators that began life in BMW. Compared to other books in this field, it's a deceptively easy read. But I know of at least one rocket destroyed by engineers ignorant of the basics in sections 9.5 and 9.6. Sure, it leaves out chaos and I really wish it used SI rather than imperial units (actually, it favors canonical units, a useful and units-agnostic concept). But BMW is the simplest, most intuitive intro to astrodynamics I've ever seen.Book Review: Fundamental of Astrodynamics
Summary: 4 Stars
The arguments of the book are very well explained.
Any argument is accompanied by numerical examples very useful for a better understanding of the argument itself.
Book Review: A classic text
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a very useful book on astrodynamics, which teaches the fundamentals quite well. And yes, you have to do the problems to get full value from the book. For example, in Chapter 3, the book discusses the Hohmann transfer, which gets us between two circular coplanar orbits with the least velocity change with two impulse transfers. Now, some people I know think that this is the best you can do! That you can't get there with less delta-v. However, that's simply false. And the authors point this out in problems 3.9 and 3.10 at the end of the chapter, where they discuss bielliptical transfers.
If I were trying to become adept at doing astrodynamics, I'd be sure to make use of computers as well. I'd have exercises where I developed or modified some code, maybe in Matlab. I'd use these for getting answers, showing the effects of approximations, and visualizing solutions. The book suggests using computers and even has some computer-based exercises, but it was written in 1971, and computer-based options are much, much better here in the 21st century.
I highly recommend this book.
Book Review: Aspiring Aerospace Engineers Read This Book
Summary: 4 Stars
Do the math. Study the problems. Derive the equations. You will go to the stars. De Motu resurrected. Isaac Newton watch out!Book Review: Excellant first book
Summary: 5 Stars
The book isn't intended to be all things to all people. It covers fundamentals. I have worked in the field and keep two copies ;)The review of vector mathematics in the appendix is especially useful for non-specialists who want to start studying this topic.