Overview
- Serves both as textbook and reference work
- Provides an in-depth coverage of all aspects of the physics of astronautics
- Fourth edition includes substantial revisions and extensions
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Keywords
- Orbital Mechanics
- Orbital Perturbations
- Orbital Maneuvering
- Three-body Problem
- Rocket Fundamentals
- Rocket Staging
- Thermal Propulsion
- Flight Mechanics
- Interplanetary Flight
- Spaceflight Dynamics
About this book
This book covers all the key concepts, relationships, and ideas behind spaceflight and is the perfect companion for students pursuing courses on, or related to, astronautics. As a crew member of the STS-55 Space Shuttle mission and a full professor of astronautics at the Technical University of Munich, Ulrich Walter is an acknowledged expert in the field. This book is based on his extensive teaching and work with students, and the text is backed up by numerous examples drawn from his own experience. With its end-of-chapter examples and problems, this book is suitable for graduate level or even undergraduate courses in spaceflight, as well as for professionals working in the space industry. This fourth edition includes substantial revisions of many sections to extend their coverage. These include an overview of the different approaches to solving Newton’s gravitational equation of motion, a concise and newly structured coverage of orbital maneuvering, an enlarged and improved sectionabout the sphere of influence, a new section about hierarchical three-body systems, major enlargements in space reference frames and orbit geometry, and a new section about the earth reference ellipsoid.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Background
Ulrich Walter studied physics and received his Ph.D. in 1985 in the field of solid state physics at the University of Cologne, Germany, with research visits at the nuclear research centers Jülich, Germany, and ILL Grenoble, France. Thereafter, he spent one year at the US research laboratory Argonne National Laboratories in Chicago and another year at the university of California, Berkeley, as a postdoctoral student. In 1987, he was appointed a member of the German team of science astronauts to fly the Shuttle Mission STS-55, April 26 to May 6, 1993, with 89 scientific experiments. In 1994, he headed the development of the “German Satellite Data Archive” of the German Remote Data Sensing Center of the DLR (German Aerospace Center) in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich, Germany. In 1998, he went to the IBM Development Laboratory in Böblingen as a program manager in charge of development and consulting for IBM software products and as lead consultant for IBM Pervasive Computing software products.Research Areas
Since March 2003, he holds the chair of the Institute of Astronautics at the Technical University, Munich. He lectures and does research and development in unmanned and manned space technology and in systems engineering. His main research is in real-time space robotics, intersatellite link communication technologies, technologies for planetary exploration, and system modeling and optimization.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Astronautics
Book Subtitle: The Physics of Space Flight
Authors: Ulrich Walter
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-15991-6Due: 22 October 2024
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-15994-7Due: 22 October 2024
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-15992-3Due: 22 October 2024
Edition Number: 4
Number of Pages: XXXVIII, 993
Number of Illustrations: 884 b/w illustrations, 118 illustrations in colour
Industry Sectors: Aerospace, Electronics, Energy, Utilities & Environment, Engineering, IT & Software, Materials & Steel, Oil, Gas & Geosciences