Customer Reviews

Space Vehicle Dynamics and Control (Kids Go)

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Bong Wie's "Space Vehicle Dynamics and Control" is, by far, one of the best books ever published in the AIAA Education Series. It packs a lot of info on a multitude of subjects which don't usually come together in a single book. The mathematical preliminaries and the sections on dynamics and control of flexible structures are particularly well done. (This is perhaps the first time a textbook covers the interlacing property of poles & zeros of certain transfer functions, particularly those associated with flexible structures.) In addition, the inclusion of the "H-infinity" topic the way the author did it is very good since, in general, books do not feature the subject in such a concise, objective, useful way. The same is true of the section on halo orbits, as well. Best of all, Wie's having included Kharitonov's theorem comes as a blessing, since the issue is rarely seen in non-European texts.

Unfortunately, in its present form (first edition), the book is not without its flaws. The alphabetical index should indicate explicitly where one can find subjects like the aforementioned interlacing property, as well as bang-bang-type controls. Also, a couple of topics have been omitted altogether: yo-yo devices (possibly deemed too simple) and the more advanced issues pertaining to the extremely important time-varying nonlinear systems (e.g.: time-varying eigenvalues). This is arguably OK, as this last subject, requiring a lot of preliminary material on operator theory, might be considered too advanced for a non-systems book, especially one in the Education Series.

In closing, one must acknowledge Bong Wie for bringing this more-than-welcome addition to the controls literature.

This is a rather complete presentation of the knowledge of controls and dynamics needed to design, specify, and analyze spacecraft control sytems. No navigation or guidance is covered. Of course no reference to same is made in the title. The book is primarily a composition of basic control background including modern topics like H-infinity. The H-infinity control discussion is the most understandable out there and its limitations are spelled out clearly, perhaps for the first time. The structural dynamics and controls sections are outstanding with some novelty. Interleaving is not unique to this book, however. Bryson covers it in Control of Spacecraft and Aircraft. Quite frankly, at this point in time most of the spacecraft controller design methodologies are handbook in nature and what is most needed is a good background in the basics that extends into the actual design domain enough to be useful. Bong Wie has provided that in this book for controller design to a greater extend than any other written thus far.

This book can be used as a reference if you are already know most of the material. But if you are trying to learn attitude control/determination with background from dynamic system then good luck. Book is full of conceptual thoughts with detail explanation where he arrives at equations. The book also lack real examples and problems are a bunch of derivations that can be easily found in other text. I have good background in aerospace dynamics and have worked in aircraft area. I would recommend Schaub, Junkin's book as their explanations are more systematic and closer to the way aerospace community think including real world examples.

I'm a graduate student beginning in Attitude Determination and Control, of a small Cubesat, using magnetic torque coils.

I had ordered a set of books to educate myself on the topic. This book is not helping me identify the problem and the thought process towards the solution as I hoped.

I imagine I will find it useful later when I am looking for the math to quantify the problem, but for now I dont think I can "learn" from only it.