This graduate textbook on optimal spacecraft trajectories demonstrates the theory and applications of using the minimum amount of propellant possible to reach a target destination. The author aims to
One of the major challenges of modern space mission design is the orbital mechanics -- determining how to get a spacecraft to its destination using a limited amount of propellant. Recent missions suc
For nearly two decades, Orbital Mechanics by John E. Prussing and Bruce A. Conway has been the most authoritative textbook on space trajectories and orbital transfers. Completely revised and updated,
Want to know not just what makes rockets go up but how to do it optimally? Optimal control theory has become such an important field in aerospace engineering that no graduate student or practicing eng
This book introduces the elementary computational techniques of optimal control in aerospace engineering. Throughout, use is made of the time-optimal launch of a satellite into orbit as an important c
