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: Great Little Introduction
Summary: 4 Stars
A quick examination of the table of contents gives an idea of the scope of topics for this text. It covers a wide range of topics with a pretty good introduction to the general problem of ballistic missile trajectories. Some of the terminology is a bit dated, however, which can cause some confusion to readers familiar with some of the material. For example, it uses the term "Geocentric-Equatorial Coordinate System" to describe a geocentric Cartesian frame better known as the "Earth-Centered Inertial (ECI)". However, this does not diminish the value of the material contained in this work. I highly recommend it as an introduction to astrodynamics.George Chastain
Software Consultant/Systems Engineer
Huntsville, Al
Book Review: Good Reference Source for Students, Engineers and Educators
Summary: 4 Stars
While working for NASA/JPL back in the 1970's and 80's, I first used this book as a reference source while doing engineering support for radio astronomy experiments. I recall at the time wishing I'd know of the book a few years earlier while still at the Univ. of Arizona; while a student I would have found plenty of use for it. Recently I have returned to academia, and find myself making use some of its material for by my lower-division astronomy students. I've come to depend on it for its clearly-written explanations of the various coordinate systems, reference frames and obital dynamics. And I especially like the way it introduces n-body problems and the how they are affected by perturbations. For myself I even make some use of it when doing calindrical calculations.
It is among a handful of reference sources that I find almost continuously useful in so many applications.
Book Review: Very useful
Summary: 5 Stars
Written in the 1970s for use at the Air Force Academy, this book, though quite old, is still a great reference for those wishing to learn basic astrodynamics. It covers most of the major topics in very good detail, and is suitable for self-study as well as classroom instruction. Its age does not really have a significant impact on the quality of its content.Book Review: Some topics omitted, but still a good book
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is a fairly complete overview of planetary mechanics, at least from the standpoint of the Newtonian formulation of the problem, for the authors do not use Lagrangian or Hamiltonian methods. The use of Hamiltonian formulation, via phase space constructions, sheds considerable light on the two-body and the N-body problems, but the reader interested in Hamiltonian mechanics will have to look elsewhere. Also, the authors do not discuss the presence of chaotic dynamics in orbital mechanics, nor are integrability issues discussed. In addition, the current debate over modifications of Newtonian mechanics is not included in the book, due to its time of publication. But if one wants a practical introduction to Newtonian orbital mechanics that also addresses numerical issues, this would be a good book to begin with. I would recommend the use of a symbolic programming language, such as Mathematica or Maple, to assist in the visualization of the orbits and in the routine computations if one were to use this book as an aid to teaching orbital mechanics. Another good feature of the book is the interjection of historical background and anecdotes at various places in the book. For example, one learns that it was Edmund Halley who was primarily responsible for bringing Newton's discoveries to the world. Newton's work remained idle for twenty years until Halley encouraged Newton to publish his explanation of planetary motion.
The mechanics as outlined in this book is timeless and will continue to be learned by future generations of students as they take up the reigns of human exploration beyond the Moon to the entire solar system.
Book Review: Great for amateur astronavigators
Summary: 5 Stars
The sections on the Kepler Problem (given orbit, find position at time) and Gauss Problem (given two points and time between, find orbit) were especially helpful to me. This book was clearly written with computers in mind, even though there is no code in the book. All of the most important algorithms are given in a step-by-step manner, with clear cross-references to the relevant equations. Derivations for allmost all important formulas are given from first principles, so that when an error in either the book or my code showed up, I was able to trace the source of the error. I saw very few errors in the book. Also especially helpful were several fully-worked examples, construced such that I could follow the example and my program in parallel, step by step, and verify that they agree. With the help of this book, I was able to reconstruct the departure and interplanetary cruise of the Mars Odyssey 2001 spacecraft.