On Thu, 30 Dec 2004, Ejay Hire wrote:
> Does anyone have a recommendation for an intro to orbital mechanics?
> There was a discussion a while back about Hubble being unreachable from
> the ISS that went over my head pretty quick. The recent discussions of
> NEO 2004MN4 have re-picqued my interest, and I'd like to get a handle on
> this subject.
The best current starter book is Prussing&Conway's "Orbital Mechanics"; the
one complaint I have about it is that it's rather thin for the price.
Identifying a good second book is harder. Chobotov's "Orbital Mechanics"
(2nd ed, I think) is a possibility. Again, not cheap.
Both of these unfortunately are more "fundamentals" books than "practical
applications" books. What we need is "An Engineer's Guide to Orbital
Mechanics", and as far as I know there's nothing that exactly qualifies.
Oh, and if you're really feeling poor, there's always Bate/Mueller/White's
"Fundamentals of Astrodynamics". It's old and a lousy book, but it is
cheap. I mention it because people occasionally enthusiastically
recommend it, which I find bizarre.
Henry Spencer
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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