Fundamentals of astrodynamics

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1. GrosvenorFeb 2025
   These might help.

   Tactical and Strategic Missile Guidance, Seventh Edition https://www.amazon.com/Tactical-Strategic-Missile-Guidance-S...

   Tactical missile warheads https://www.amazon.com/Tactical-Warheads-Progress-Astronauti...

   Fundamentals of Astrodynamics https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Astrodynamics-Second-Dov...

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2. antegamisouApr 2023
   This type of learning material, lacking any desperate 'ELI5' oversimplifications and laying out the proper amount definitions and equations without having to resort to fancy animations to keep the -quite often indolent- reader engaged, is unfortunately scarce in today's web, as is evident from the website's layout.

   Here are two favorite readings for anyone willing to delve more into the subject:

       Orbital Mechanics for Engineering Students by Howard D. Curtis
   

   https://www.amazon.com/Orbital-Mechanics-Engineering-Student...

       Fundamentals of Astrodynamics (aka BMW) by  Roger R. Bate, Donald D. Mueller, Jerry E. White, William W. Saylor
   

   https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Astrodynamics-Second-Dov...

   Another great textbook as suggested by musgravepeter in the comments is

       Fundamentals of Astrodynamics and Applications by David A. Vallado, Wayne D. McClain
   

   https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Astrodynamics-Applicatio...
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3. exDM69Jun 2020
   I started with Bate, Mueller, White: Fundamentals of Astrodynamics, which is US Air force material. It contains two courses, so you should skip some of the chapters at first.

   Then I read a bunch of research papers and more in depth literature. Richard Battin's work for example.

   I've been hacking on a two body orbital mechanics library in C with SIMD extensions, and an interactive sandbox with OpenGL. I wrote both from scratch.

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4. ececconiOct 2015
   The book Fundamentals of Astrodynamics" by Bate, Mueller and White, where it seems like these notes come from was my Orbital Mechanics textbook in college.

   Our final project was to program a crude missile defense system. Great book. It's an old one, but I highly recommend it. It's one of the few textbooks I saved from college.

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5. DavidSJApr 2015
   > It is perfectly possible to miss orbit even after a complete circumnavigation.

   Yes, if you have a source of lift, and you're within the atmosphere, then you can circumnavigate the globe without reaching orbital velocities. A ballistic rocket generally has no significant source of lift and spends nearly all of its time in space.

   > Trajectories are shaped like parabolas, not ellipses.

   All orbits are conic sections: either an ellipse, hyperbola, or a parabola (the limiting case between the two). But a parabolic or hyperbolic trajectory has escape velocity, whereas only an elliptic trajectory is planet-bound. The apogee of the ellipse is locally approximated well by a parabola, which is why for non-orbital mechanics ballistic trajectories are often modeled by a parabola, but all suborbital trajectories are actually ellipses, not parabolas. If the Earth were flat and the gravity vector were constant, then they would be actual parabolas.

   Orbital mechanics is very counterintuitive. I recommend Fundamentals of Astrodynamics if you'd like to learn more, or play KSP rather than FSP.

   > Well it's more like a quarter

   On this you are correct, the map I looked at deceived me. :)

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6. starpilotMar 2013
   If you just want to extend your pop science knowledge, going for a degree and even most OCW courses would be overkill. I went through a bachelor's and master's in aerospace engineering, and they are not to be taken lightly; 24% of engineering students dropped out after freshman year at my university. The only book I recommend for you is Fundamentals of Astrodynamics (BMW); it's an approachable introduction orbit design/analysis that you should be able to take on knowing calculus through differential equations.
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