Description This volume presents a comprehensive overview of celestial mechanics providing the reader with a solid basis on which to build an understanding of the theory of interplanetary flights. Restricted three-body and N-body problems, the role of the Jacobi integral, perturbation theory and many other problems. The theoretical development is fully detailed, first with reference to interplanetary missions of past and present, from Pioneer and Voyager to Ulysses and Cassini and then considering notable astrophysical problems such as the equipotential surfaces of binary stars and star clusters and the distribution of the eccentricities of binary stars. Advanced topics such as solar sailing, low-thrust propulsion and periodic orbits in the Earth-Moon system and new types of trajectories from Mars to Earth and Venus are presented. Recent developments in the discovery of extra-solar planets and chaos in the Solar System are also covered.
