The Logic of Microspace

Welcome to The Logic of Microspace I'd like to say welcome to a brand new book, but in the interest of keeping my closet skeleton-free, I'll admit it's not entirely new. But neither are small satellites. While microspace practitioners might build a satellite in a year or even six months, it still takes a year or more of brainstorming to really get the bugs out of the mission concept, bureaucracies need years to get them under contract, and the launching pro cess is a bit more than a matter of stepping up to the turnstile with the appropriate number of quarters to drop into the slot. Or maybe that's a pretty good model, since it would take a few years (four is my estimate) to drop ten million quarters into a slot. Books are not that different - writing them takes forever minus epsilon, and the pro duction process is long. Plus, in another assault on "new," The Logic of Microspace includes, as one of its three major sections, an updated version of the wildly popular (ok, the popular) Micro Space Craft.

Autorentext

Rick Fleeter is founder and President of the small spacecraft company, AeroAstro. He has built more than 20 successful small satellites.

Klappentext

Changing the focus of the multibillion dollar global aerospace business toward smaller, lower-cost spacecraft is not happening solely due to technical, managerial, financial or market motivations. emThe/em emLogic of Microspace/em, Rick Fleeter's second book on the small, low-cost space programs which are the fastest-growing segment of aerospace activity, gives the reader a keen understanding of the full spectrum of factors driving this profound change. emThe Logic of/em emMicrospace/em then goes beyond engineering technologies and management techniques to envision the tantalizing prospects microspace has in store for the industry, its present markets and those of the future. br/ emThe Logic of Microspace/em is three books in one. The technologies underlying small space were the subject of Rick's widely acclaimed first book, emMicro Space Craft/em, which sold out its first printing by word of mouth. This highly understandable, entertaining book, called the only comedic page-turner ever written about aerospace engineering, has been thoroughly updated and is the first book within emThe Logic of Microspace/em. br/ But microspace is much more than a technical field. Management of the program, the mission, the client, the team and even the press, all play a role in a successful mission. The second book within this trilogy-inside-one-cover brings the same understandable, humorous, fast-reading and informative style of the technical sections to a complementary book on minimum size and cost mission management and the philosophical and often surprising psychological underpinnings of minimum-cost space missions. br/ All the technical and managerial tools to build minimum-cost spacecraft are useless without the human motivation to build low-cost missions. The third part of emThe Logic of Microspace/em is a dramatic novella, possibly the first in any aerospace text, describing several alluring opportunities for benefiting humanity and the space industry via low-cost satellites and space missions. br/ emThe Logic of Microspace/em provides the reader with the technical and managerial tools and perspectives to lead a microspace program. But more importantly, the reader gains the desire to use small, low-cost space missions to create a better program, a better project, and even a better world. Rick's humor and sincere enthusiasm, his deep, native understanding of the field, are contagious. emThe Logic/em emof Microspace/em is the fastest route to an infusion of infectious new ideas you won't want to resist.

Inhalt
1: Microspacecraft.- 1. Why Are We Here?.- 2. Propulsion Or, How to Get There?.- 3. Orbit Mechanics Or, What Keeps These Things Up, Anyway?.- 4. Orbit Mechanics II: The Movie.- 5. You Send Me: Orbit Mechanics III 47.- 6. Magnetic Attractions.- 7. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Radio, Part I: Shatter the Myth of the Digital Miracle?.- 8. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Radio, Part II: Faster than a Speeding Bullet.- 9. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Radio, Part III: What's Up, Doc?.- 10. Thermal Dynamics: Tough Talk About Temperature. A short, virtually painless, and occasionally philosophical look at spacecraft thermostatics and thermodynamics.- 11. You got an Attitude, Buddy? A Primer on Small Satellite Stability and Control.- 12. Memory Systems of Spacecraftor Memory What Is It Good For?.- 13. Mechanisms: The Nuts and Bolts of Small Satellites.- 14. Batteries Not Included.- 15. Bring'Em Up Clean.- 16. Choosing A Launch Site.- 17. Satellite Constellations.- II: Missions and Management Reliability Section 1: Missions.- 1. The Smallest Show on Earth or, Tom Thumb in the Big Top.- 2. Telepresence: Paul Bunyan Takes a Hike.- 3. Being Disruptive or Lessons from the Ever-Expanding Backpack.- 4. More of Less is More: The Logic of Microspace.- 5. The One-Bit Sound Bite.- 6. Nothing Is Cost-Optimized.- 7. What Came First, Chickens or EggsReally? Some Recipes.- II: Missions and Reliability Section 2: Reliability.- 1. The Mantra of Reliability.- 2. Fun with Parts.- 3. The Logic of Auto Parts.- 4. Darwin Predated Satellites but Engineering Obsoletes Evolution.- 5. Baby Boomer Risk Reduction: Revisiting the Clean Room.- 6. Engineering Religion.- 7. Where to Look for Historical Underpinnings, Term Definitions, andRevolutionary Zeal.- II: Missions and Reliability Section 3: Critical Design Review.- 1. Critical Design Review: A Meditation.- 2. The Dilbert Wars: The Front Lines of Program Management.- 3. Killing the Wooly Mammoth.- 4. What Mood Is Your Program in?.- 5. Developing a Program Plan.- 6. The Future: A Lot of Unknowables, a Few Inevitables.- 7. Space History and a Possible Future.- III: A Wrinkle in Microspace.