Design Of Rockets And Space Launch Vehicles

With growing interest in space activity and numerous new launchers in development, this book is a timely, comprehensive survey of important concepts and applications. It enhances understanding and provides exposure to practical aspects of design, manufacturing, testing, and engineering associated with these topics.

"Interest is growing in space activity, and many new launchers are in development. Design of Rockets and Space Launch Vehicles, Second Edition is a timely and comprehensive exposé of important concepts and applications. This newly updated edition provides enhanced understanding and exposure to the latest developments in the practical aspects of design, engineering, manufacturing, and testing. Although it is primarily intended for readers with at least a 3rd-year level knowledge of aerospace engineering, mathematics, and physics, because it contains many applications and step-by-step illustrated examples along with photographs or line drawings of actual hardware, it will also be of interest to practicing engineers, technical managers, and others who are interested in "how rockets work" in either the "big picture" sense, or in areas other than one's specialty. This book will answer many questions as to "why things are done this way.""--

Annotation This practical book gives young professionals all the information they need to know to get started in the space business. It takes you step-by-step through processes for systems engineering and acquisition, design and development, cost analysis, and program planning and analysis. You'll find the systems engineering and design process that applies to all space transportation systems, then the overall system architecture considerations that also apply to all space transportation systems. There is also detailed coverage of space launch vehicles by class, including the current space shuttle, other manned reusable systems, expendable systems, and future systems. A companion CD-ROM contains the Operations Simulation and Analysis Modeling System software.

Since ancient times, men and women have dreamed of soaring among the stars, but only in this century has that dream been realized. In Rockets into Space, Frank Winter tells the fascinating story of the modern launch vehicle, from the mythological musings of the Babylonians and Greeks to the present-day reality of manned and unmanned space flight. In concise yet comprehensive chapters dense with anecdotal detail, Winter tracks the theoretical formulations and technological breakthroughs that have charted the evolution of rocket propulsion and vehicle design. He pays particular attention to the remarkable contributions of pioneers Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert Goddard, Hermann Oberth, Eugen Sänger, and Sergei Korolev, whose genius and vision paved the way for later innovation. He describes the clandestine development of the V-2 rocket in Germany, under the technical leadership of Wernher von Braun, and its dramatic impact on postwar rocket research and satellite development in the United States and the Soviet Union. He also chronicles the complex events of the last three decades, which have produced ever more sophisticated rockets capable of launching larger payloads, from weapons to weather and communications satellites. Finally, he surveys exotic propulsion systems--nuclear, electric, solar, photon, laser--that lie on the frontiers of science today but that will shape the spaceflight and space policy decisions of tomorrow. Rockets into Space is an authoritative, entertaining guidebook for all who are interested in the history of space travel.

In this definitive study, J. D. Hunley traces the program’s development from Goddard’s early rockets (and the German V-2 missile) through the Titan IVA and the Space Shuttle, with a focus on space-launch vehicles. Since these rockets often evolved from early missiles, he pays considerable attention to missile technology, not as an end in itself, but as a contributor to launch-vehicle technology. Focusing especially on the engineering culture of the program, Hunley communicates this very human side of technological development by means of anecdotes, character sketches, and case studies of problems faced by rocket engineers. He shows how such a highly adaptive approach enabled the evolution of a hugely complicated technology that was impressive—but decidedly not rocket science. Unique in its single-volume coverage of the evolution of launch-vehicle technology from 1926 to 1991, this meticulously researched work will inform scholars and engineers interested in the history of technology and innovation, as well as those specializing in the history of space flight.

This book describes a new type of rocket science needed to create low-cost, reliable, responsive space transportation. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand the issues explored within this book. The text is beyond the current state-of-the-art engineering of modern launch vehicles, going into a scientific investigation that opens the door to true design optimization. The purpose of this work is to enable the reader to understand how low-cost space transportation is practical, and why it has been so hard to achieve.