The revised edition of this practical, hands-on book discusses the launch vehicles in use today throughout the world, and includes the latest details on advanced systems being developed, such as electric and nuclear propulsion.

The author covers the fundamentals, from the basic principles of rocket propulsion and vehicle dynamics through the theory and practice of liquid and solid propellant motors, to new and future developments.

He provides a serious exposition of the principles and practice of rocket propulsion, from the point of view of the user who is not an...

In Human Missions to Mars Donald Rapp looks at human missions to Mars from an engineering perspective. He begins by describing the pros and cons of robotic exploration versus human exploration and then examines the ideas for sending humans to Mars from the point of view of both the enthusiast and the skeptic. Chapter 2 describes how space missions are planned and how they may be achieved as a sequence of separate steps. Chapter 3 deals with the complex issues relating to the outward journey to Mars and the return leg. The author deals with propulsion systems and with the analysis of the...

The majority of books dealing with prospects for interstellar flight tackle the problem of the propulsion systems that will be needed to send a craft on an interstellar trajectory. The proposed book looks at two other, equally important aspects of such space missions, and each forms half of this two part book.

Part 1 looks at the ways in which it is possible to exploit the focusing effect of the Sun as a gravitational lens for scientific missions to distances of 550 AU and beyond into interstellar space. The author explains the mechanism of the Sun as a gravitational lens, the...

The investigation of minor solar system bodies, such as comets and asteroids, using spacecraft requires an understanding of orbital motion in strongly perturbed environments. The solutions to a wide range of complex and challenging problems in this field are reviewed in this comprehensive and authoritative work.

In Space Debris Models and Risk Analysis the authors will provide the reader with a comprehensive background to understand the various sources of space debris, and to assess associated risks due to the current and future space debris environment. Apart from the non-trackable objects produced by historic on-orbit fragmentation events, several other sources of space debris will be outlined. Models will be described to allow the generation and propagation of the different debris families and permit the assessment of the associated collision risk on representative target...