Resources and references on the topic of space exploration

Question

Which books, journals, articles, or electronic resources are considered a must-read by scientists, engineers, etc., involved in development and design of space missions?

I'm looking for the so-called "literary canon" of space missions; The ones most praiseworthy for expanding one's knowledge on space exploration.

Answer 1

Reference books:

• Space Mission Analysis and Design. W. J. Larson and J. R. Wertz (Editors). Microcosm Press, 1999.
• Space Mission Engineering: The New SMAD. James R. Wertz (Editor).
• Space Vehicle Dynamics and Control. Bong Wie. AIAA, 1998.
• Spacecraft Thermal Control Handbook: Vol.1 Fundamental Technologies. David G. Gilmore (ed.) AIAA, 2002.
• Space Systems Failures. Harland, Shayler, Lorenz. 2005.
• Space Debris: Models and Risk Analysis. Heinrich Klinkrad. 2006.
• Orbit and Constellation Design and Management. J.R. Wertz. Microcosm, 2001.
• Spacecraft-Environment Interactions. Daniel Hastings & Henry Garrett. Cambridge Univ.Press, 1996.
• Hypersonic aerothermodynamics. John J. Bertin. AIAA, 1994.
• Modeling and Simulation of Aerospace Vehicle Dynamics. (2nd ed.). Peter H. Zipfel. AIAA, 2007.
• Deep Space Flight and Communications: Exploiting the Sun as a Gravitational Lens. Claudio Maccone. Springer, 2009.
• Modern Engineering for Design of Liquid-Propellant Rocket Engines. Dieter K. Huzel and David H. Huang. AIAA, 1992.
• Coming Home: Reentry and Recovery from Space. Roger D. Launius, Dennis R. Jenkins, NASA
  Free download in EPUB / MOBI / PDF formats via NASA e-Books page
• Introduction to Astrodynamic Reentry. Lt.-Col. Kerry D. Hicks, 2009. (Free PDF online).
• Mechanics and Thermodynamics of Propulsion. P. Hill, C. Peterson. Addison-Wesley, 1992
• Rocket Propulsion Elements, 7th Ed.. G.P. Sutton & O. Biblarz. John Wiley & Sons, 2001
  Free PDF from MIT, albeit with many drawings cut away - it's better to read the 4th ed. as well
• Liquid rocket combustion instability. NASA, 1972. SP-194. Harrje D.T., Reardon F.H.
• Liquid rocket engine combustion instability. Progress in Aeronautics and Astronautics, vol. 169. AIAA; 1995. Yang V., Anderson W. (eds.)
• Dynamical Systems, the Three-Body Problem and Space Mission Design, Koon, Lo, Marsden & Ross, 2006
  Free PDF form Caltech
• Statistical Orbit Determination. B.D. Tapley, B.E. Schutz, G.H. Born. New York, Elsevier, 2004.
• Spacecraft Operations. Thomas Uhlig, Florian Sellmaier, Michael Schmidhuber. Springer, 2014. ISBN 9783709118023
• Deep Space Optical Communications. Ed.by Hamid Hemmati. JPL, 2005. Available online
• Handbook for limiting orbital debris. NASA, 2008 (expired in 2013). Still Online.
• Libration Point Orbits and Applications. J.Masdemont. 2003.
• Fundamentals of Electric Propulsion: Ion and Hall Thrusters. Dan M. Goebel, Ira Katz. Free PDF from NASA

• Principles of Space Instrument Design. A. M. Cruise, T. J. Patrick, J. A. Bowles, C. V. Goodall. Cambridge Univ.Press, 1998. ISBN 9780521451642.

• Deep Space Telecommunications Systems Engineering. Joseph H. Yuen (Ed.), Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 1982, (JPL Publication 82-76) Online

• LEO on the Cheap: Methods for Achieving Drastic Reductions in Space Launch Costs. John R. London III, Lt Col, USAF. Research Report No. AU-ARI-93-8, Air University Press, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, October 1994. Free and Available here.

• Orbital Mechanics for Engineering Students by Howard Curtis. Rentable as an ebook, purchasable in all formats
• An Introduction to Rocket Missile Propulsion Rocketdyne Technical Training publication that covers basic rocket equations in a simplified manner. Annoying page-at-a-time viewer but a valuable resource.
• Glossary of Terms Used in Chemical Propulsion Systems Defines most commonly used words used in discussing chemical rocket systems.

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Manned exploration references, just in case someone needs them:

• Human spaceflight : mission analysis and design. Wiley J. Larson; Linda K. Pranke. McGraw-Hill, 2000.
• Human integration design handbook NASA, 2010.
• NASA STD-3001 Vol.1 Crew Health as of 2014-07-30
• NASA STD-3001 Vol.2 Human Factors, Habitability and Environmental Health as of 2011-01-10
• Space Psychology and Psychiatry. Nick Kanas, Dietrich Manzey. Springer/Microcosm. 2008.
• Fundamentals of Space Medicine. Gilles Clément. Springer, 2005.
• NASA Human-rating standards (2012 revision).
• NASA Johnson Space Center Flight Data File page: Links to .pdf copies of Shuttle and Station crew procedures and training manuals.
• The ISS: Operating an Outpost in the New Frontier: Contains good descriptions and schematics of ISS systems, as well as descriptions of ISS operations and training. Written from a flight control viewpoint.

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Model and amateur rocketry (someone's got to start somewhere!):

• How to Design, Build and Test Small Liquid-Fueled Rocket Engines, Leroy J. Krzycki, Rocketlab / China Lake, CA., 1967
  Online source

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Journals:

• AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics
• AIAA Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets
• Icarus
• Journal of the Astronautical Sciences
• Planetary and Space Science
• Acta Astronautica

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History books and collections:

• John D Clarke: Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants
• NASA: Key documents in the history of space policy
• Boris Tchertok. Rockets and People. Vol.1: part 1, part 2, part 3. Vol.2 Vol.3 Vol.4
• NASA History Office books (online)
• Carey McCleskey. Space Shuttle Operations and Infrastructure: A Systems Analysis of Design Root Causes and Effects (2005).
• Space Shuttle Missions Summary (NASA, 2011).
• Tom Wolfe. The Right Stuff. 1979.
• Apollo manuals from Ron Burkey.
• Stages to Saturn, Roger E. Bilstein. 1980.
• Taming Liquid Hydrogen: The Centaur Upper Stage Rocket, 1958-2002
• A brief history of the DoD space test program, ANSER, 1993.
• Project Orion : the true story of the atomic spaceship, George Dyson. New York : Henry Holt and Co., 2002. ISBN 0805059857
• From Sputnik to space ports in 55 pages: The History of Spaceflight
• Press Information Space Shuttle Transportation System March 1982 A highly detailed reference on Space Shuttle systems from Rockwell International, one year into the flight program. NASA has a full HTML version of the 1988 revision online here but it omits all the illustrations.
• Shuttle Operational Data Book Volume IV (partial) Part of the "crash book" issued to rescue personnel in the early parts of the shuttle program, contains highly detailed drawings of the Orbiter exterior and some interior systems. Sadly incomplete.

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Nonfiction and activity space books for children:

• (age 4-8) Brian Floc: Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 (48 pages)
• (age 5-7) Martha E. H. Rustad: The Exploring Space (6 x 24 pages)
• Linda McReynolds: Eight Days Gone (48 pages, 2012) ISBN 9781580893640.
• (age 7-11) Raman Prinja: Universe Rocks (4 x 32 pages, 2012) ISBN 9781848359345.
• Elise Gravel: Blast off with Doodle Tom (96 pages)
• (age 8-10) Heinemann-Raintree (publisher): Astronaut Travel Guides (8 x 48 pages)
• (age 9+) Mark Brake, Nishant Choksi: Really, Really Big Questions about Space and Time (64 pages)
• (age 9-13) Don Nardo: Destined for Space (64 pages)
• (age 9-13) Enslow Publishers: The American Space Missions—Astronauts, Exploration, and Discovery (6 x 48 pages)
• (age 10+) Ian Graham: 3D Explorer: Solar System (32 pages pop-up)
• (age 10-13) Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano, Michael Carroll: A Black Hole Is Not a Hole (48 pages)
• (age 10+) Clive Gifford: Out of This World: All the Cool Bits About Space (128 pages)
• (age 10+) Pamela Dell: Man on the Moon: How a Photograph Made Anything Seem Possible (64 pages)
• Kristen McCurry, Mat Edwards: How to Draw Amazing Airplanes and Spacecraft (64 pages)

• (age 11+) Eve Hartman, Wendy Meshbesher: Mission to Mars (56 pages)

• Review of children's space-themed books by Emily Lakdawalla

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Interdisciplinary books:

• Harry McSween and Gary Huss, Cosmochemistry
• Paul Schenk, Atlas of the Galilean Satellites
• N.N.Greenwood and A. Earnshaw, Chemistry of the Elements, (1ed., Pergamon, 1984), (2ed., Butterworth-Heinemann, 1997, ISBN 978-0-7506-3365-9)

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Design reference missions:

To be determined

_{Mirrored at GitHub.}

Answer 2

The list of (historical and current) launch vehicle user manuals

• Saturn V (SA-503 flight manual, 1 Nov 1968 release)

• Saturn V (SA-507 flight manual, 15 Aug 1969 release, 5 Oct 1969 change)

• [Energiya]

• Delta 2

• Delta 4

• Atlas 5

• Athena Ic and IIc

• Ariane 5

• Vega

• Soyuz (from Baykonur), archived at Arianespace as of 2007-03-04

• Soyuz (from Baykonur), StarSem as of 2013-06-20

• Soyuz (from Guiana Space Centre) as of 2012-03

• Proton Mission planning guide Rev.7 from ILS

• [Angara] - somebody keeps the guide available at L2, it seems. Not really wise.

• Long March 2C an archive copy (1999) from GlobalSecurity in separate chapters.

• Long March 3A (final version, 2011)

• H-IIA - contact the manufacturer. D'oh!. H-IIA found at Raumfahrer.net.

• [H-IIB]

• PSLV as of 2005

• [GSLV]

• Taurus-II (unavailable since Orbital ATK merger)

• [Antares]

• Zenit-3SL (from Sea Launch) (Rev.D User guide, December 2012)

• Dnepr-1

• Rockot

• Minotaur I as of 2011-06-16

• Pegasus (unavailable since Orbital ATK merger)

• Falcon 9

• [Epsilon] (a Japanese proto-ICBM).

• Shuttle Crew Operations Manual

An infographic from Randall Munroe (XKCD), click for a large version:

Answer 3

This stuff is more focused on earth centered orbits then interplanetary, but the math is the same.

Fundamentals of Astrodynamics by Bate Mueller & White is a great introductory to intermediate level text at a very good price.

I think probably most people working in the field have a copy of "BMW" on their bookshelf. They're coming out with a new edition this fall, more then 40 years after the original - mine is already on order.

Another good one is Methods of Orbit Determination by Escobal - I particularly like to treatment of coordinate systems.

Spacetrack Report Number 3 by Hoots and Roehrich is the foundational work on General Perturbations theory used in the SGP4 propagator for TLE (Two Line Element) data.

Answer 4

Online courses and textbooks (free of charge)

1. NASA Basics of Space Flight
2. Khan Academy
3. The Physics Hypertextbook
4. Bookboon's Engineering section
5. Engineering Mathematics: YouTube Workbook
6. Alison Foundation Diploma in Mathematics - Science, Technology and Engineering

Answer 5

Propellants - fuels and oxidizers

• Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants. John D. Clark, 1972. Available in pdf.
• Safety Standard for Oxygen and Oxygen Systems. NASA, 1996. Available in pdf.