Re-entry vehicle dynamics

The present book has the objective to provide the practicing engineer with a senior-level introduction to the dynamics of reentry vehicles. A description is provided of an atmospheric model, and the earth's form and gravity field are examined, taking into account basic atmospheric relationships, the development of an analytic atmospheric model, a simple atmospheric model for closed-form solutions, the geocentric position vector, the deviation of the vertical, the earth's radius, and a computer program for calculating the gravitational acceleration. Force equations are considered along with aspects of Keplerian motion, reentry body particle mechanics, moment equations, axis transformations, a flowfield description, moment equations in a constant density atmosphere, boost trajectories, angular motion during the Keplerian phase, angular motion during reentry, and the inverse method. Attention is also given to first-order linear differential equations with variable coefficients, ring laser gyros and pendulous accelerometers, the calculation of the real roots of a polynomial, quaternions.