The Vast Solar System and Principles of Spaceflight

This chapter presents the structure and dynamics of the solar system and the principles of spaceflight. The link between the two is natural, since the main objective of spaceflight is to visit objects in the solar system, mission requirements are derived from the dynamics of the solar system. The spaceflight section covers the main elements needed to understand the propulsion specific requirements of a spaceship which are mainly due to planetary and interplanetary orbital manoeuvres.