Spacecraft Dynamics and Control: An Introduction

I was first introduced to ``Spacecraft Dynamics and Control'' in my final year spacecraft dynamics undergraduate course. Now pursuing a Master's Degree in Aerospace Engineering, this book is by far the most useful to me.The first section of the book introduces Kinematics and Rigid-Body Dynamics. I wish that my undergraduate dynamics course had been taught using the notation and methods presented in this section. The rigorous yet easy to understand notation used in this book simplifies dynamics incredibly.The most important part of the book still remains Orbital Mechanics and Attitude Stabilization and Control. Eight chapters of the book are dedicated to Orbital Mechanics and cover the Keplerian Two-Body Problem, Orbital Maneuvers, Interplanetary Trajectories, Orbital Perturbations, Spacecraft Formation Flying, etc.The section on Attitude Stabilization and Control is extremely well presented. I had an undergrad course that introduced me to state-space control but I had never really seen classical control. This book does a great job introducing important concepts like Block Diagrams, PID control, Root Locus Method, Frequency Response, etc.So if you are planning doing any kind of work involving spacecraft dynamics and control, I strongly suggest that this is the first book you buy.

There are very few books on spacecraft attitude determination and control, and before this book there weren't any I liked much. After 34 years in the field as an attitude control analyst, system engineer, and chief engineer, I was thinking I should devote a year or two of my retirement to writing a textbook to fill in the gap but with the publication of this book I can breathe a sigh of relief and move on to other things! This book fully fills in the gap. It is up to date and includes every significant topic an engineer in spacecraft attitude control engineer should know.

Needed this book to do an assignment, expected to get it Friday and do in on the weekend, but it ended up arriving on Tuesday,THE DAY AFTER THEY SHIPPED IT. I was thrilled and shocked. If I need another text book next term, I'll defnitely be checking these suppliers out again

"Spacecraft Dynamics and Control" is a must buy for anyone looking for a well-written introduction to orbital mechanics or even an introduction/review in classical control theory. This textbook was used in my Spacecraft Dynamics undergraduate elective course.Chapter 1 introduces vectrix notation, which I believe is crucial when dealing with complicated dynamic systems, such as those encountered when dealing with orbital mechanics or attitude dynamics. This chapter also defines physical vectors, reference frames and derives the rotation matrix.Although it is relatively short, Chapter 2 is one of the most useful chapters in the textbook. I've learned about rigid-body dynamics in a couple of undergraduate courses, but it was always confusing and not explained very well. This topic is clearly introduced in a step-by-step manner that makes perfect sense after going through the preliminaries of Chapter 1.Chapters 3-10 do an impressive job of introducing orbital mechanics, rigorously covering the two-body problem, preliminary orbit determination, orbital maneuvers, and more. This is the part of the textbook that most buyers will probably be looking for, and it does not disappoint.Like the other reviewers mentioned, the second half of the book contains an excellent treatment of classical control theory. I've never taken a proper course on this subject, so this came as a welcome surprise. This section of the textbook could easily be used as a reference text in an undergraduate classical control class. If you need an introduction or a review of classical control theory, I would highly recommend this text.Overall, this textbook is well-written, concise, informative, and has awesome figures. I recommend it to anyone interested in orbital mechanics and even as a reference text for anyone studying dynamics and control.

I used Spacecraft Dynamics and Control in a final-year undergraduate engineering course on spacecraft dynamics. True to its title, the first half of the text begins with an excellent development of classical mechanics, as motivated by the two body problem, before moving on to cover several important subtopics in the field of spacecraft dynamics. The second half of the text continues from here with spacecraft attitude stabilization and orientation control, and includes a complete development of classical control theory as motivated by the attitude control problem, and several chapters covering passive stabilization methods.This is an excellent first text in orbital mechanics. Students with no previous experience in the subject will find that the development provided here, which builds from first principles, will leave them with a very strong foundation in the subject. The coverage of mechanics provided was so helpful to the development of my understanding that I would recommend the entire text on the strength of the first three chapters alone. Provided the reader has a reasonable level of comfort with vectors and a good understanding of calculus, this book will serve as an excellent introduction to orbital mechanics and control theory, and its clarity makes it suitable for both self study, or as a course textbook (the complete text is probably suited to a two-semester course on orbital mechanics). I would recommend the book wholeheartedly to anyone looking for a gateway into orbital mechanics, at the upper undergraduate or lower graduate level.

Excellent book. I fully recommended it for those interested in controlling the orientation of a space probe. Julio. Reading University

Affordable and Decent Quality, Excellent book