Spacecraft Systems Engineering

This book is based on a set of course notes which accompany a series of short courses given at Southampton University on space technology. It is aimed at the recent science or engineering graduate who wishes to become a spacecraft engineer. The coverage in this book is intended to give the breadth which is needed by system engineers with an emphasis on the bus aspect rather than on the payload. Chapters 2 to 5 set the general scene for spacecraft, and particularly for satellites. They must operate in an environment which is generally hostile compared to that with which we are familiar on Earth, and the main features of this are described in chapter 2. Chapters 3 and 4 address the dynamics of objects in space, where the vehicles will respond to forces and moments which are minute, and which would be discounted as of no significance if they occurred on Earth. Chapter 5 relates the motion of the spacecraft to Earth rather than to the inertially-based reference system of celestial mechanics. Chapters 6 to 15 address the main subsystems. Chapters 7 and 8 cover the subjects of getting off the ground and return through the atmosphere. Chapters 6, 9 to 12, and 14 deal with the main subsystems on board the spacecraft, including the on-board end of the telemetry and control link with ground control. The communication link is covered in chapter 13, where the fundamentals of the subject are included, together with their rather special application to spacecraft. This is relevant to the telemetry and control link, and to a communications payload. Chapter 16 introduces electro-magnetic compatibility (EMC), one of the subjects which must be addressed by the systems engineer if the various subsystems are to work in harmony.