Space Mission Analysis and Design

Space Technology Library #8

by James R. Wertz (Editor), Wiley J. Larson (Editor)

The goal of this book is to allow you to begin with a "blank sheet of paper" and design a space mission to meet a set of broad, often poorly defined, objectives. You should be able to define the mission in sufficient detail to identify principal drivers and make a preliminary assessment of overall performance, size, cost, and risk. The emphasis of the book is on low-Earth orbit, unmanned spacecraft. However, we hope that the principles are broad enough to be applicable to other missions as well. We intend the book to be a practical guide, rather than a theoretical treatise. As much as possible, we have provided rules of thumb, empirical formulas, and design algorithms based on past experience. We assume that the reader has a general knowledge of physics, math, and basic engineering, but is not necessarily familiar with any aspect of space technology. This book was written by a group of senior engineers with over 800 years of collective space experience. It reflects the insight gained from this practical experience, and suggests how things might be done better in the future. From time to time the views of authors and editors conflict, as must necessarily occur given the broad diversity of experience. We believe it is important to reflect this diversity rather than suppress the opinions of individual authors.

Genres: Space, Engineering, Science, Reference, Technical, Nonfiction, Stem

849 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 1991

Reviews

[MariaK]

This is the bible of space-mission and spacecraft design. Excellent book, very well written, well structured, easy to follow (assuming you have the necessary math and physics background). I read it some years ago and had to re-read parts of it recently for a project I'm working on. I read several other books on the subject in the meantime but none of them was up to par with this one.

[Karen Grothe]

This was the textbook for the Spacecraft Systems Design and Analysis course I took. Interestingly, some of the same systems engineering and mission planning being covered is mentioned in the Voyager's Grand Tour book I've been reading as well.

[Astragen]

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.



1969: "Space Mission Analysis and Design" by Wiley J. Larson (Ed.)



I dunno, the moon has lost all appeal to me when it comes to space missions, manned or otherwise. After the wonders of 1969, when it was done with computing capacities that today would fit into an iPhone, it will never be the same awe-inspiring experience for us viewers back home. I can, to some degree, appreciate today's security priorities and all, but they inevitably lead to reservations and delays and cancellations until each and every nut and bolt is considered 110 percent perfect. And then, perhaps in 2030 or 2040, they will be ready to place a person on the surface – again. And that person will be there only to exploit the moon commercially, in the interest of greedy corporations.

[Muhammad Hassan Qazi]

If you want to understand and work on Space missions, this book is among the best books to read. It contains the very basics of Space mission design, written in a simple and effective way. I loved the way technical aspects of Space mission analysis and design are explained with the help of very useful tables and flowcharts.