Handbook of Rocket Propulsion Engineering: Liquid, Solid, Hybrid, and Electric Systems from Fundamentals to Advanced Design - Softcover

STERLING, NATHANIEL K.

9798188686963: Handbook of Rocket Propulsion Engineering: Liquid, Solid, Hybrid, and Electric Systems from Fundamentals to Advanced Design

Softcover

ISBN 13: 9798188686963

Publisher: Independently published, 2026

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Every rocket carries everything it needs to push itself — and that single fact makes propulsion the toughest constraint on almost any space mission.
Rocket propulsion sits where thermodynamics, chemistry, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and flight mechanics meet. Master one thread but stay vague on the rest, and you can plug numbers into equations without ever seeing why a design turns out the way it does. Too many resources deepen the problem, quoting finished results or treating a single subsystem in isolation.
This comprehensive handbook connects the threads. It develops the subject in a deliberate order, building every important relation from clearly stated assumptions — so each result is traceable to the physics it rests on — then applies those principles to every major family of rocket, from liquid and solid to hybrid and electric.

Inside, you will:

Follow first-principles derivations instead of memorising detached formulas
Work examples that carry their units all the way to the answer
Estimate performance with characteristic velocity, thrust coefficient, and specific impulse
Build velocity-increment budgets and weigh staging and mission trade-offs
Compare engine power cycles, cooling methods, turbopumps, and feed systems with confidence
Reinforce every chapter with summaries, practice problems, and worked answer keys
Reach for appendices of constants, propellant properties, key equations, and orbital data

Topics include the reaction principle and the rocket equation; gas dynamics and nozzle design; performance parameters and efficiencies; flight mechanics, staging, and mission budgets; propellant chemistry and combustion; liquid-engine architecture and cycles; thrust chambers, injectors, and cooling; turbopumps; solid motors; hybrid and electric propulsion; heat transfer, materials, and structures; and combustion instability, testing, and system integration.

It is written for upper-level undergraduate and graduate engineering students meeting propulsion in depth, and for practicing engineers and researchers who want a reference that derives its results rather than merely stating them. A working knowledge of calculus, differential equations, and introductory thermodynamics and mechanics is assumed; each chapter supplies the rest.

Open this handbook and build a clear, connected command of how rockets really work — and keep a derivation-based guide to every major engine type within reach.

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