Rating: 
Summary: Aspiring Aerospace Engineers Read This Book
Review: Do the math. Study the problems. Derive the equations. You will go to the stars. De Motu resurrected. Isaac Newton watch out!
Rating:
Summary: Aspiring Aerospace Engineers Read This Book
Review: Do the math. Study the problems. Derive the equations. You will go to the stars. De Motu resurrected. Isaac Newton watch out!
Rating: 
Summary: Very useful book on Astrodynamics
Review: f you want to know the science of Astrodynamics read this book. If you work with orbital analysis or orbital mechanics this book for you. For the beginners calculus, Algebra and some geometry knowledge are required otherwise the other aspect are well explained. I like the examples with its solution in this book, it force the reader to understand the principle especially if the subject sometimes is out of our daily vision. I have no problem following up this book, it simple and has all the principle and scientific logic you need to understand the science of space dynamics. It's a very good bargain with its price.
Rating:
Summary: Fundamentals of Astrodynamics
Review: I bought this book here in the United States because when I had a problem with coordinate transformations it gave me great insight. Its approach to the subject was very fundamental. The only problem I had going through this book was with the use of old units. I will therefore suggest that a revised edition based on Scientific Units (SI unit) be considered and I believe this would make this book become more universal. It is indeed a great book on this subject!
Rating:
Summary: Excellant first book
Review: The book isn't intended to be all things to all people. It covers fundamentals. I have worked in the field and keep two copies ;)The review of vector mathematics in the appendix is especially useful for non-specialists who want to start studying this topic.
Rating:
Summary: Great for amateur astronavigators
Review: The sections on the Kepler Problem (given orbit, find position at time) and Gauss Problem (given two points and time between, find orbit) were especially helpful to me. This book was clearly written with computers in mind, even though there is no code in the book. All of the most important algorithms are given in a step-by-step manner, with clear cross-references to the relevant equations. Derivations for allmost all important formulas are given from first principles, so that when an error in either the book or my code showed up, I was able to trace the source of the error. I saw very few errors in the book. Also especially helpful were several fully-worked examples, construced such that I could follow the example and my program in parallel, step by step, and verify that they agree. With the help of this book, I was able to reconstruct the departure and interplanetary cruise of the Mars Odyssey 2001 spacecraft.
Rating:
Summary: Very useful
Review: This book is a fairly complete overview of planetary mechanics, at least from the standpoint of the Newtonian formulation of the problem, for the authors do not use Lagrangian or Hamiltonian methods. The use of Hamiltonian formulation, via phase space constructions, sheds considerable light on the two-body and the N-body problems, but the reader interested in Hamiltonian mechanics will have to look elsewhere. Also, the authors do not discuss the presence of chaotic dynamics in orbital mechanics, nor are integrability issues discussed. In addition, the current debate over modifications of Newtonian mechanics is not included in the book, due to its time of publication. But if one wants a practical introduction to Newtonian orbital mechanics that also addresses numerical issues, this would be a good book to begin with. I would recommend the use of a symbolic programming language, such as Mathematica or Maple, to assist in the visualization of the orbits and in the routine computations if one were to use this book as an aid to teaching orbital mechanics. Another good feature of the book is the interjection of historical background and anecdotes at various places in the book. For example, one learns that it was Edmund Halley who was primarily responsible for bringing Newton's discoveries to the world. Newton's work remained idle for twenty years until Halley encouraged Newton to publish his explanation of planetary motion. The mechanics as outlined in this book is timeless and will continue to be learned by future generations of students as they take up the reigns of human exploration beyond the Moon to the entire solar system.
Rating:
Summary: Good Textbook in need of an overhaul
Review: This book, the last word on astrodynamics (and the first, incidentally), covers every aspect of orbital mechanics, from Newton's gravitational equation to launch to transfer orbits to aberrational effects. It is clear and thorough. My only caveat is that it its old. A new edition done with the aid of computers, color ink, and more contemporary exercises would go a long way towards clearer understanding.
Rating:
Summary: A classic text
Review: This is a very useful book on astrodynamics, which teaches the fundamentals quite well. And yes, you have to do the problems to get full value from the book. For example, in Chapter 3, the book discusses the Hohmann transfer, which gets us between two circular coplanar orbits with the least velocity change with two impulse transfers. Now, some people I know think that this is the best you can do! That you can't get there with less delta-v. However, that's simply false. And the authors point this out in problems 3.9 and 3.10 at the end of the chapter, where they discuss bielliptical transfers.
If I were trying to become adept at doing astrodynamics, I'd be sure to make use of computers as well. I'd have exercises where I developed or modified some code, maybe in Matlab. I'd use these for getting answers, showing the effects of approximations, and visualizing solutions. The book suggests using computers and even has some computer-based exercises, but it was written in 1971, and computer-based options are much, much better here in the 21st century.
I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent introductory text to the subject
Review: This work was written by three instructors at the USAF Academy for use as a textbook. It provides an excellent introduction to astrodynamics. A knowledge of calculus and linear algebra is required, but the derivations are quite reasonable. The diagrams are also very good, enabling the reader to visualize complex spatial orientations. The book's only weakness is its age. Several real-world examples are out-of-date, and the numerical analysis techniques do not reflect the current state-of-the-art. Nevertheless, this is the best book to start learning astrodynamics, and gives a solid foundation from which to study more advanced texts.
| 
