Autzoo.1620
net.space
utzoo!henry
Mon May 3 19:40:13 1982
orbital mechanics
I strongly second Jerry Pournelle's recommendation of Max Hunter's
"Thrust Into Space" as the best text on orbital mechanics (and an
excellent introduction to propulsion systems, too). It is difficult
to write a book on the subject which is neither so oversimplified
that it insults the intelligence, nor so mathematical that it is
accessible only to specialists. Hunter succeeded. "Thrust Into Space"
was part of a Holt-Rinehart-Winston series of space books aimed at
high schools and the like; Hunter's is the only one worth looking at
twice. Using no math beyond simple algebra, he manages to discuss
everything from basic rocket principles to the basics of relativistic
starflight. When the math would get too hairy, he draws graphs instead.
Five stars.
I have one other recommendation if you want something more detailed and
have some math background. Archie E. Roy's "The Foundations of
Astrodynamics", Macmillan 1965, is good. You will need a good grounding
in calculus and some idea of what vectors are about. Given this, the
book discusses everything I have ever wanted to know about the subject.
For example, about halfway through he gives a fairly detailed discussion
of the three-body problem, including the Lagrange points (and such subtle
items as why L4 and L5 are unstable unless the masses of the two major
bodies involved are very different -- they don't work for binary stars!).
This is one of the few nontrivial celestial-mechanics books I have run
into that is aware that rockets exist; older books in particular spend
lots of time on planets and none on things that can (gasp) *change* orbit.
Unfortunately, *both* of these books are out of print, and have been for
quite some time. I've never seen either of them secondhand, despite a
lot of looking. I finally found libraries which had them, and took the
time, effort, and expense to xerox both of them in their entirety.
(Regarding the ethics of xeroxing: I would be happy to pay the authors
reasonable royalties for my copies, if I knew how much and where to send
the cheques, and could be sure of not being hassled by third parties like
publishers.)
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