| Summary: | Celestial mechanics is the basis for understanding the theory of interplanetary flights. In this volume, the author presents different aspects of celestial mechanics, such as restricted three-body and N-body problems, the role of the Jacobi integral, perturbation theory and many other problems. In a clear and concise way, the theoretical development is fully detailed, beginning with interplanetary missions past and present, from Pioneer and Voyager to Ulysses and Cassini. Then notable astrophysical problems are considered, such as the equipotential surfaces of binary stars and star clusters and the distribution of the eccentricities of binary stars. The text also presents advanced topics, such as solar sailing, low-thrust propulsion and periodic orbits in the Earth-Moon system, and new types of trajectories from Mars to Earth and Venus. Recently, scientists have made headway in the discovery of extra-solar planets and chaos in the solar system, and those developments are explained here. Space Dynamics is accessible to advanced undergraduates and graduate students of physics, astrophysics and mathematics.
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