Celestial Mechanics and Astrodynamics

This interdisciplinary book combines the astronomical and the engineering approaches to those questions of space research that are known as orbit and trajectory problems. The new word “Astrodynamics” (no reference to stellar dynamics) intends to represent a field that emphasizes the engineering aspects of dynamical astronomy. The application of a highly developed mathematical science which is soundly embedded in hundreds of years of tradition to the newest engineering problems is one of the most challenging tasks to representatives of both fields. This book intends to meet this challenge by covering the most significant and recent developments in a systematic, though not at all textbook like, manner. It is prepared for the worker in the field with background in celestial mechanics and with familiarity with the engineering problems.

The chapters are organized according to the major functional subjects of space dynamics rather than along operational lines. Indeed, it is aimed at the discussion, first, of general ideas, and then these are interspersed with examples. Chapter 1 reports on the most advanced analytical methods, recently proposed and developed, that attack new and old problems of celestial mechanics. The second chapter is devoted to the physics of the solar system from the point of view of celestial mechanics. One of the major engineering problems of space dynamics, orbit selection, is the subject of the third chapter. Chapter 4 applies the general systems engineering aspects of the previous chapter to a specific mission. Probably the most popular subjects of space dynamics, orbit transfer, and optimization problems are treated in the fifth chapter. The last chapter deals with a classical subject of celestial mechanics, viz., the determination of orbits of objects already in motion. This chapter, therefore, closes the circle of subjects that starts with perturbation problems of celestial mechanics and ends with the inverse problem, i.e., orbit determination.