Elements of Spacecraft Design

This new book is drawn from the author’s years of experience in spacecraft design, culminating in his leadership of the Magellan Venus orbiter spacecraft design from concept through launch. The book also benefits from his years of teaching spacecraft design at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and from its use as a popular home study short course for AIAA.

The book presents a broad view of the complete spacecraft. The objective is to explain the thought and analysis that go into the creation of a spacecraft with simplicity and with enough worked examples so that the reader can be self taught if necessary. After studying the book, readers should be able to design a spacecraft, to the phase A level, by themselves.

Everyone who works in or around the spacecraft industry should know this much about the entire machine.