Spacecraft Formation Flying: Dynamics, Control and Navigation - Hardcover

Pini Gurfil

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0750685336 ISBN 13: 9780750685337

Publisher: Butterworth Heinemann, 2007

Synopsis

Space agencies are now realizing that much of what has previously been achieved using hugely complex and costly single platform projects―large unmanned and manned satellites (including the present International Space Station)―can be replaced by a number of smaller satellites networked together. The key challenge of this approach, namely ensuring the proper formation flying of multiple craft, is the topic of this second volume in Elsevier’s Astrodynamics Series, Spacecraft Formation Flying: Dynamics, control and navigation.

In this unique text, authors Alfriend et al. provide a coherent discussion of spacecraft relative motion, both in the unperturbed and perturbed settings, explain the main control approaches for regulating relative satellite dynamics, using both impulsive and continuous maneuvers, and present the main constituents required for relative navigation. The early chapters provide a foundation upon which later discussions are built, making this a complete, standalone offering.

Intended for graduate students, professors and academic researchers in the fields of aerospace and mechanical engineering, mathematics, astronomy and astrophysics, Spacecraft Formation Flying is a technical yet accessible, forward-thinking guide to this critical area of astrodynamics.

• The first book dedicated to spacecraft formation flying, written by leading researchers and professors in the field
• Develops the theory from an astrodynamical viewpoint, emphasizing modeling, control and navigation of formation flying satellites on Earth orbits
• Examples used to illustrate the main developments, with a sample simulation of a formation flying mission included to illustrate high fidelity modeling, control and relative navigation

About this title

Review

Spacecraft formation flying is being pursued vigorously by NASA and the European Space Agency

Synopsis

Spacecraft formation flying (SFF) is of huge importance to the aerospace and space community. Not the stuff of science-fiction, SFF involves flying multiple small satellites together, to deliver benefits which far outweigh a single larger craft or space station. The first autonomous formation flying earth science mission was in 196 and NASA now has 35 SFF mission sets. By networking several smaller and cheaper craft, scientists can make simultaneous measurements that enable higher resolution astronomical imagery, provide robust and fault-tolerant spacecraft system architectures, and enable complex earth science and space science networks dispersed over clusters of satellites in space.This is the first book to introduce and explore SFF. It is a topic of enormous importance to aerospace engineers, astrodynamicists, satellite engineers, astronomers, physicists, and applied mathematicions. This book provides a complete introduction to the subject and is supported by graduate level student exercises plus Matlab and Maple code sets for running SFF simulations. This is the first book dedicated to spacecraft formation flying which is the enabling element of distributed spacecraft systems.

It is written by the leading researchers and teachers in the field; perfect for research and graduate students. It is accompanied by Matlab and Maple code sets and exercises for graduate level students of aerospace science, astrodynamics and orbital mechanics.

Edition details

• Publisher: Butterworth Heinemann
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0750685336
• ISBN 13: 9780750685337
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352
• Editor: Pini Gurfil