Orbital Relative Motion and Terminal Rendezvous: Analytic and Numerical Methods for Spaceflight Guidance Applications

Jean Albert Kéchichian

pri 2021 · Space Technology Library Libri 39 · Springer Nature

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This book provides a comprehensive analysis of time-fixed terminal rendezvous around the Earth using chemical propulsion.
The book has two main objectives. The first is to derive the mathematics of relative motion in near-circular orbit when subjected to perturbations emanating from the oblateness of the Earth, third-body gravity, and atmospheric drag. The mathematics are suitable for quick trajectory prediction and the creation of computer codes and efficient software to solve impulsive maneuvers and fly rendezvous missions.
The second objective of this book is to show how the relative motion theory is applied to the exact precision-integrated, long-duration, time-fixed terminal rendezvous problem around the oblate Earth for the general elliptic orbit case.
The contents are both theoretical and applied, with long-lasting value for aerospace engineers, trajectory designers, professors of orbital mechanics, and students at the graduate level and above.

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Jean Albert Kéchichian is a retired engineering specialist from The Aerospace Corporation. He has made lasting contributions in Astronautical Guidance and Astrodynamics over the past 25 years. His extensive involvement in NASA’s interplanetary and planetary missions include the design of the orbit sustenance maneuvering strategies of the TOPEX spacecraft, the design of the turn and orbit change maneuvers of the Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers (AMPTE) , direct support of the Pioneer Venus Orbiter mission operations, and the Galileo Probe trajectory reconstruction accuracy analysis. His software has been used recently by The Aerospace Corporation to fly actual spacecraft to the GEO orbit using optimal low-thrust transfer trajectories.
Dr. Kéchichian received Engineer’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Universite de Liege in Wallonie, Belgium in 1971, and his MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1976. In 1977, he received his PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University. From 1979 to 1987, Dr. Kéchichian was a Maneuver and Orbit Determination Analyst at JPL. From 1987 to 1989 he worked as a Senior Engineering Specialist at Ford Aerospace. Dr. Kéchichian then worked as an Engineering Specialist at The Aerospace Corporation from 1989 until his retirement.
Dr. Kéchichian has served a three-year term on the Astrodynamics Technical Committee, acted as session chairman for several Trajectory Optimization Sessions at various AIAA/AAS conferences, and served as a reviewer for the AIAA/AAS/IAF journals besides serving as an Associate Editor for the Journal of the Astronautical Sciences. His book, "Applied Nonsingular Astrodynamics," was published by Cambridge University Press in 2018.