How Spacecraft Fly: Spaceflight Without Formulae - Softcover

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Graham Swinerd has over thirty years of experience in spacecraft orbit design and analysis and in the design of spacecraft. He also has many years of experience as an engineer, both in industry, working for a number of years at British Aerospace Space Systems, and as a lecturer of spacecraft engineering at Southampton University, supervising project undergraduate and postgraduate research students. He has some 60 technical papers published in refereed journals, and numerous conference papers. He is also principal editor, and contributing author, of an award winning standard textbook in spacecraft design - 'Spacecraft Systems Engineering (3^rd Edition)', Fortescue, Stark and Swinerd, Wiley & Sons, 2003. Graham Swinerd is therefore ideally suited to author a book on the subject of the design and operation of spacecraft.

Award: Luigi Napolitano Literature Award, presented by the International Academy of Astronautics, at the 55th International Astronautics Congress,Vancouver, 3 October 2004.

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About half a century ago a small satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched. The satellite did very little other than to transmit a radio signal to announce its presence in orbit. However, this humble beginning heralded the dawn of the Space Age. Today literally thousands of robotic spacecraft have been launched, many of which have flown to far-flung regions of the Solar System carrying with them the human spirit of scientific discovery and exploration. Numerous other satellites have been launched in orbit around the Earth providing services that support our technological society on the ground.

How Spacecraft Fly: Spaceflight Without Formulae by Graham Swinerd focuses on how these spacecraft work. The book opens with a historical perspective of how we have come to understand our Solar System and the Universe. It then progresses through orbital flight, rocket science, the hostile environment within which spacecraft operate, and how they are designed. The concluding chapters give a glimpse of what the 21^st century may hold in terms of human exploration of the Solar System and more futuristic propulsion technologies for interstellar travel.

Graham Swinerd invites you to understand "how spacecraft fly," while becoming a convincing rocket scientist along the way!