By Joy Conrad, Pre-College  Chair

Karen Wheeler-Hall, a physics teacher at La Porte High School, was one of the winners of the AIAA National Educator Achievement Award.  The award was issued by AIAA and the AIAA Foundation to recognize outstanding K-12 educators and their efforts to excite their students about math and science and prepare them for tomorrow's technologies.  Awardees and a guest will receive an expense paid trip to Washington, DC, which includes tours of the nation's capital and official recognition at AIAA's Honors Night Banquet at the Global Air & Space International Business Forum in May 2001. Karen was nominated by the Houston Section for her efforts initiating the FIRST Robotics Competition at her school last year. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a national non-profit organization that began in 1992 with the intent of generating interest in science and technology among today’s youth.Their yearly robotics competition is a huge success with thousands of students competing in competitions nationwide.The teams consist of high school students who have six weeks to build a working, remote-controlled robot from a box of parts.They collaborate with engineers from business and universities and get a hands-on opportunity to design and build working hardware and software.

Karen was nominated by the Houston Section for her efforts initiating the FIRST Robotics Competition at her school last year. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a national non-profit organization that began in 1992 with the intent of generating interest in science and technology among today’s youth.Their yearly robotics competition is a huge success with thousands of students competing in competitions nationwide.The teams consist of high school students who have six weeks to build a working, remote-controlled robot from a box of parts.They collaborate with engineers from business and universities and get a hands-on opportunity to design and build working hardware and software.

Karen spent a considerable amount of time fundraising in the La Porte area and was able to raise the needed funds and persuade a local machine shop to donate their shop space and tools.She then organized a team of approximately 26 students, 6 teachers, and 10 engineers (many from the local aerospace industry).For the next six weeks, she could be found nights and weekends at the machine shop overseeing the operation.After several redesigns and alternate parts were made with the clock running out, the robot was finally finished and shipped out.

The La Porte robot competed at the Lone Star Regional Competition on March 16-18, 2000.‘Robo Dog’ competed against 36 other teams with four teams in each match.There were some tense moments between matches when the software was not running correctly or the motors needed to be replaced, but persistence kept the machine running.Their robot performed well for a first time entry, and all the students involved were thrilled to see something that they made actually work.They made some improvements then placed 2^nd in the Pasadena I.S.D. Invitational just a month later.

The Houston Section would like to congratulate Karen Wheeler-Hall for her efforts pulling the students, teachers, and engineers together for such a worthwhile project.

The La Porte High School will be participating in the FIRST competition again this year.If you would like to help, contact Steve King at steve.king@lmco.com.

Features

International Space Station


Service Vehicles Conference Development is Underway

Exciting Times in the Houston Section Technical Branch

The Spirit of Apollo Scholarship Program for 2001-2002

Mr. Carlos Blanco ISS Service Vehicle Conference General Chairman

Dr. Albert A. Jackson Astrodynamics Technical Committee Chairman

Mr. William Atwell Life Sciences and Space Processes Technical Committee Chairman

Searching for Extrasolar Planets "Lunch and Learn”

Recent Life Sciences “Lunch ‘n Learn”

Electronic Newsletter Status

Houston Section Membership Summary

Update AIAA records

WAR 2001

Innovations 2001

The STI Center and Some New Astrodynamics Books

By Dr. Garland Bauch, Chairman

Season’s greetings to all members of the Houston Section.Planning continues to increase communications between the Section leadership and local stakeholders.The Executive Tour presentation has been completed and several meetings have been arranged with local company executives.Executive Council leaders who work for these companies have also been invited to attend the meetings.The purpose of these meetings is to thank the executives for their past support, obtain any suggestions they may have for our programs, relay to them a little about the Houston Section, and ask for their support for our programs.They will also be asked to supply a volunteer Executive for an AIAA Houston Section Steering Group that is in the planning stage.The purpose of this Group will be to suggest future programs that are relevant and important for the Section and stakeholders.Another activity in the planning stage is the Phone Tree to communicate with the membership on a personal level.Any member wishing to volunteer for this activity should call Mr. Phil Puddy at 281-326-1457.Glenn Jenkinson kicked-off the new Propulsion Technical Committee (TC) last week at Ninfas’s.I view the formation of this TC as an important activity because it will encourage research for new advanced propulsion systems.Human expansion into space must have economical and efficient propulsion system to occur at a rapid pace.The Section leadership under Dr. Sivaram Arepalli and Rakesh Bhargava continue to search for additional leaders and participants, and members who qualify for honors and awards.The list of awards for the February 1, 2001 deadline was published in the last ‘Horizons’ issue.Call Rakesh at 713-977-7770 x1319 if you wish to suggest one of the members for an award or honor.Please have a safe and enjoyable Holiday Season and New Year!!

By Carlos Blanco SVC Chairman

As we move into the next year, the International Space Station (ISS) will be hosting more visits from Space Shuttle crews delivering equipment and supplies.By the fall of 2001, the fledgling outpost will have grown beyond its current configuration, equipped with the US Lab, an Airlock and Russian modules.Expedition 2 will have been living on board for eight months by then.Meanwhile, October will see another important gathering for the Space Station.On October 14, 2001, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Houston Section will be hosting the 2^nd International Space Station Service Vehicles Conference (SVC) in Houston, Texas.

The three-day conference will include technical presentation sessions covering the engineering and operations aspects of spacecraft-to-ISS rendezvous, proximity operations, capture, redeploy and departure.Workshops during the conference will help develop consensus and establish standards for near-ISS communications, navigation, and operations.The proceedings of the conference will report advances in spaceflight technology that can then be applied to operations in proximity to the Space Station, as well as to spacecraft that will service the Station.Among some of these spacecraft, some in use, others still to be designed, are: the Space Shuttle, Crew Return Vehicle (CRV), Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV), Progress, Soyuz, Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), Inspector, AERCam, or any other alternate access concepts.As the Space Station grows, the importance of these vehicles, as well as the operations needed to operate them safely in proximity to ISS, will grow substantially.This is why a gathering such as SVC is important, since it brings together the very people from all parts of the aerospace industry that will be working with these vehicles.

Though the conference is still almost a year away, the AIAA Houston Section has not been idle.Already, a technical committee has been formed to prepare the conference and ensure a successful program.Already, we have completed several crucial milestones, including securing the conference’s location and dates.We are now hard at work preparing the next SVC milestone, the critical Call for Papers.Once this is complete, it will be sent out in a massive media blitzkrieg, which will include publishing the call for papers in several prestigious aerospace publications, an e-mail notice to previous conference attendees, as well as the launching of the SVC website.Looking into next year’s activities, the SVC committee will be very busy, planning the logistics of the conference (rooms, catering, entertainment, speakers), as well as receiving the papers and establishing the different sessions that will be held during the three-day event.

That is not to suggest that the SVC committee can’t use more help.A conference of this size doesn’t happen overnight and it will not happen without the contribution and dedication of many people.Volunteers are needed for the SVC Technical and Operations sub-committees.These groups are assigned the job of handling the various tasks that are needed to ensure that SVC is a success.Examples of SVC sub-committees are Budget, Session Chairs, Workshop Coordinator, and Activities.There are many more in SVC and all can always use more volunteers.
If you’re interested in participating in this exciting conference, contact Carlos Blanco at (281) 244-4580 or David Lechner at (281) 483-1685.

Exciting Times in the Houston Section Technical Branch, Come Join In!

ByGlenn Jenkinson, Vice Chair – Technical

We are in exciting times in the Technical Branch of the Houston Section.Recent activities include multiple Lunch and Learns; progress with planning numerous technical conferences and workshops; preliminary formation of a new Propulsion Technical Committee; and various articles written by Technical Branch team members.

We have had a number of Technical Committee Lunch and Learns ranging in topics from “Searching for Extrasolar Planets” to “User and Task Analysis of the Flight Surgeon’s Console”.Each has been a big success with excellent speakers.See the articles on some of these Lunch and Learn events in this issue of Horizons.

We have also seen much progress on the International Space Station Service Vehicles Conference (SVC).See the article in this Horizon written by Carlos Blanco, the Chairman of the SVC.In his article Mr. Blanco tells you about all their progress so far and the opportunities still available to get involved in this very important AIAA Houston Section sponsored event.

The AIAA Houston Section Automation and Robotics Technical Committee is well underway in planning the Workshop on Automation and Robotics (WAR) scheduled for Friday, April 27th, 2001.Dr. Gary Funk with Foxboro is the General Chairman.Along with AIAA, the WAR is co-sponsored by the Instrument Society of America, Robotics and Expert Systems Division.See the included flyer for more information on the WAR.

Members of various AIAA Houston Section TCs are working now in support of the INNOVATIONS 2001.This event is organized by The Clear Lake Council Of Technical Societies in cooperation with, and co-sponsored by, the CLCTS member organizations AIAA, IEEE, ISA, ISSA, and INCOSE.This year the General Chairman is Edward Jablonski with Dynacs and the Program Chairman is Dr. Zafar Taqvi also with Dynacs. Information on INNOVATIONS 2001 is included in this newsletter.

Formation of a new Propulsion Technical Committee (TC) in the Houston Section is underway.

A preliminary planning meeting was held in mid December to prepare for a full-scale kick-off meeting in early January 2001.This new TC is being formed in recognition that propulsion technology improvement is one of the most significant contributors to reducing future space flight costs and thus increasing space accessibility for research and development as well as commercialization.This has implications for Manned and Unmanned Space Flight feasibility driven by propulsion technology improvements.This new TC will help serve and promote the significant propulsion related activity within the Houston Section membership.

Stay tuned to the AIAA web page (http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/aiaa), the AIAA Poster Boards and the Horizon for details on these and other Technical Branch events and activities from each of the TCs as they are developed.We look forward to seeing you there!

The Spirit of Apollo Scholarship Program for 2001-2002

Edward Jablonski / Dynacs Engineering

Scholarship Committee Co-Chair

The AIAA Houston Section is again sponsoring the Spirit of Apollo scholarship program which provides a $1000 scholarship during the 2001-2002 academic year.Applicants must have defined a scholastic plan that provides entry into some field of engineering or science pertinent to AIAA technical activities, and must meet other specified eligibility requirements.

The Spirit of Apollo scholarship was established in 1988, and is funded from interest on monies the Section maintains in a local savings account.

This year we are continuing the selection process with a mail-out package to college and university financial offices in late December. Included in the package is a description of the application process, selection criteria, and the AIAA Houston Section website address to download the application forms. This year's applications must be postmarked no later than May 1, 2001. The scholarship committee is responsible for evaluating the applications andfinancial offices in late December.  Included in the package is a description of the application process, selection criteria, and the AIAA Houston Section website address to download the application forms.  This year's applications must be postmarked no later than May 1, 2001.  The scholarship committee is responsible for evaluating the applications and selecting the recipient for the following academic year.  The successful applicant(s) will be notified in June.  The first half of the scholarship amount is mailed to the school's financial office at the start of the fall term; the second half is provided at the start of the spring term.

A copy of the application form and selection information can be found on the AIAA Houston Section Home Page at http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/aiaa

For additional information on the scholarship program, please contact me via e-mail at edward.j.jablonski@boeing.com , or David Lechner at dlechner@ems.jsc.nasa.gov.

Mr. Carlos Blanco  ISS Service Vehicle Conference General Chairman By Glenn Jenkinson, Vice Chair – Technical

Ahough a relative newcomer to the space industry; the 25 year-old ISS Service Vehicle Conference (SVC) Chair, Carlos Blanco, feels as though he has been a part of the space program all of his life.Since he was a child growing up in Puerto Rico, Carlos has studied the history of the space program with great interest.The space bug bit him at an early age and it hasn’t let go since.His interest eventually extended beyond the history of the program, to the biographies of astronauts and other space pioneers.

Using them as role models, he embarked on a career path intended to take him to the stars.At Florida International University (FIU), in Miami, he studied mechanical engineering, devouring information on aerodynamics, aeronautical propulsion, space propulsion, and aircraft and spacecraft design.Even today he won’t stop pursuing knowledge; as he is seeking to earn a Masters of Aeronautics and Astronautics degree from the University of Washington with a concentration in space propulsion.To him, propulsion research holds the key to man’s destiny amongst the stars.In his own words, “we must go faster, if we hope to go further.”

But studies are not all that have helped Carlos in his pursuit of space.Even while studying for his bachelor’s degree, Carlos was hard at work building career experience.His first engineering job was a Support Engineer for a local Miami aviation firm, PTM International.There, he learned all he could about aerospace material standards, airworthiness standards, FAA regulations, reverse engineering, and statistical analysis.After two years with PTM, Carlos found himself working as a co-op with BellSouth.Though somewhat removed from aerospace, telecommunications still held some new challenges.As a co-op, Carlos learned about telephony and high-speed data networks, telecommunications engineering practices, cable design, customer relations and being responsible for an entire telephone distribution area. His experience with BellSouth eventually put Carlos in the employ of Fluor Daniel Telecommunications, a contracting firm that assumed engineering duties for BellSouth.There Carlos would remain for the last two years of his university career.After graduation, Carlos moved to Texas and a job with Southwestern Bell.However, that decision allowed Carlos the opportunity to finally enter the business he loved.On April 2000, he was hired by The Boeing Company and immediately went to work for the ISS Systems Integration Laboratory.Now a member of the International Space Station program, Carlos is a Systems Engineer tasked with the responsibility of designing testbeds that can integrate Station firmware controllers and structures and mechanisms into the lab.
That is not to say that Carlos does not have leadership skills-far from it.Already Carlos has added the Secretary position in the Houston chapter of the Boeing Employees Hispanic Network (BEHN), along with the SVC Chair to his impressive list of student leadership roles.While at FIU, Carlos was Chairperson of the Student Organizations Council of the Student Government Association (SGA) (for which he was inducted into the Who’s Who of Students in American Universities and Colleges), where he and his board oversaw over 150 student clubs.Later, he became Vice-Chair of the Hispanic Heritage Committee of the Student Programming Council.At the same time, he served as Team Captain of the FIU Mini Baja Team (FIU’s entry into the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Collegiate Design Series’ Mini Baja races) for two years.Around the same time, Carlos also assumed the presidency of the student chapter of SAE for a year.Before graduating from FIU, Carlos capped his student leadership service by becoming the Engineering Senator to SGA.So, though he is new to professional organizations, Carlos is no stranger to the challenges and demands of leadership.They are duties that he assumes gladly, as he enjoys helping others.Thus it comes as no surprise that Carlos is also interested in serving his community, and he already volunteers his time as a tutor at Bay Elementary.

Dr. Albert A. Jackson Astrodynamics Technical Committee Chairman By Glenn Jenkinson, Vice Chair – Technical

Dr. Jackson born and raised in Dallas Texas. He is half-English and half-German in ancestry. And he is 4th generation Dallas and many generations Texan on his mother’s side. He was enthused about space flight at an early age, but mathematics and physics worked a stronger spell on him than engineering.He gained a B.Sc. in Mathematics and a M.Sc. in Physics from North Texas University. Then he worked in the Apollo program before going to Austin Texas and gaining a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Physics from the University of Texas in Relativistic Physics (Gravitational Radiation). He made his living, however, mostly in the space program generally in software engineering.In recent years Dr. Jackson has done planetary physics, space debris research and engineering simulation work at the NASA Johnson Space Center. Dr. Jackson has published or presented about 100 technical papers in such fields as astrophysics, planetary physics, space debris, celestial mechanics and interstellar flight. He has worked for Lockheed/Martin since 1988 and is also a Visiting Scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas.

 As the Houston AIAA Section Technical Committee Astrodynamics Chair, Dr. Jackson endeavors to keep interested parties apprised of developments in space trajectory design, prediction, estimation, correction, optimization, computation and analysis; celestial mechanics, space navigation, optimal filtering and orbit determination; re-entry trajectories, and spacecraft attitude dynamics. The Astrodynamics Committee Chair is looking for prospective committee members in the disciplines above.

For more information on this committee, contact Dr. Albert A. Jackson at 281-483-5037.

Mr. William Atwell Life Sciences and Space Processes Technical Committee Chairman By Glenn Jenkinson, Vice Chair – Technical

Mr. William (Bill) Atwell is currently a Technical Fellow with The Boeing Company, Houston, and holds a Director’s Staff position. He is an internationally recognized expert in the field with 34 years of experience in the areas of the space radiation environment, high-energy particle transport, dosimetry, spacecraft and anatomical modeling, radiation detection instrumentation, physical and biological effects and data analyses. He serves as the current Vice-Chair of the national American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Life Sciences & Systems Technical Committee (TC), and holds a dual position as Councilor and Chair, Life Sciences & Space Processing Technical Committee, with the Houston Section of the AIAA.

 More recently, his interests and support activities have been in research supporting the NASA JSC Medical Sciences (Code: SD) and the Earth Sciences & Solar System Exploration (Code: SN) Divisions, the JSC Engineering Directorate, and the European Space Agency.Bill has been an advisor/mentor for students at the University of Maryland, Colorado State University, and Texas A & M University. He has authored more than 100 technical and scientific publications. He was a Ph.D. candidate in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Florida, and has a M. S. and B. S. in Physics/Math (English minor) from Indiana State University. Bill is the recipient of the Astronaut’s Silver Snoopy Award, Rockwell International Space & Defense Group (now Boeing) President’s Award, and numerous NASA awards and commendations.

 The AIAA-Houston section Life Sciences and Space Processes TC has crafted its vision and goals in concert with the national Life Sciences & Systems TC. Some of these include: supporting technical conferences; promoting serious discussions of key technical issues associated with the Life Sciences discipline; addressing technical challenges; and conducting Lunch & Learn seminars.

The Life Sciences and Space Processes TC is planning two (and possibly three) more Lunch ‘n Learn’s for the Spring.Bill encourages new membership in the TC to AIAA members who have an interest in the Life Sciences. If you are interested in becoming a member, please contact Bill Atwell, 281/853-1636.

Searching for Extrasolar Planets “Lunch and Learn”

By Larry Friesen, Space Science and Astronomy Technical Committee Chair

The Space Science and Astronomy Technical Committee and the AstrodynamicsTechnical Committee sponsored a Lunch and Learn at noon on Monday,December 11.The event took place in the Berkner Room at the Center forAdvanced Space Studies, the location of the Lunar and Planetary Institute(LPI).Sixteen people attended.

Dr. Tomasz Stepinski, a research scientist at LPI, spoke to us on the topic of "Searching for Extrasolar Planets".He and Dr. David Black, Director of the LPI, have lately been considering the objects that have been reported at extrasolar planets in recent years.They found some surprises.

What is often glossed over in discussions about these objects is that weDO NOT KNOW their masses from the radial velocity measurements that havebeen used to discover them.Dr. Stepinski briefly reviewed using dopplershifts in the spectra of stars to search for companions.What weactually measure is a period, a velocity change amplitude, and the formof the time series.If one assumes that the star's velocity changes aredue to a stellar companion, the period is the companion's orbital periodabout the star.The form of the time series gives orbital eccentricity,based on departures from a sinusoidal function.From the amplitude wecan derive a mass function.

Only if we further assume that the companion's mass is much smaller thanthe primary's does the mass function become "M sin(i)", where M is themass of the companion and "i" is the inclination of the orbit to theplane of the sky.(When i=90 deg., the orbit is edge on to us, and"M sin(i)" = M.)

Drs. Black and Stepinski compared orbital periods and eccentricities forthe "extrasolar planets" reported so far with periods and eccentricitiesof G dwarfs (sunlike stars) which are known to be spectroscopicbinaries:that is, with stars known from the same kind of doppler shiftmeasurements to have STELLAR mass companions.The period andeccentricity distributions of the two groups were very similar.Theseobjects do NOT have the near-circular orbits of planets in our solarsystem, except where they are very close to their stars, with periods ofa few days.For close-in orbits, tidal interactions with the primarywill circularize the orbit.Close-in orbits pose an additional problem:people modeling planet formation have not been able to come up with waysto form Jupiter type planets extremely close to their suns.

It has often been assumed in studies of these objects that orbitalinclinations are randomly distributed.If this were the case, theaverage true mass would only be moderately larger than the average"M sin(i)".However, astrometric data (displacement in the plane of thesky) for several stars with supposedly "planetary" companions have beenobtained from the Hipparcos satellite.When astrometric data is combinedwith radial velocity data, true masses for the companions can be obtained.

When this is done, a few companions still have planetary masses.Mostfor which sufficient data was available turned out to have brown dwarfmasses, and a few were so massive that they must be stars.Objects morethan roughly 13 times the mass of Jupiter are usually considered to bebrown dwarfs rather than planets.They are star-like objects, andalthough they may not have enough mass to sustain nuclear fusion in theircores, they may be massive enough to fuse deuterium for some period oftime.

Furthermore, the inclinations for this set of objects turned out not tobe randomly distributed:orbits were biased toward being close to theplane of the sky, so that "M sin(i)" values from radial velocity datawere much smaller than their true masses.

In other words, most and perhaps all of the objects people have been finding are probably not planets at all, but stellar or substellar (brown dwarf) companions.

Dr. Stepinski offered one possible way in which an orbital inclinationbias could creep in without any conscious intent.If an observer isscreening a group of candidate stars to select those for furtherobservations, and if he or she is looking for planetary companions, hemay reject those with too high a velocity amplitude.This may indeedfilter out companions too massive to be planets.But it may be filteringin inclination space as well.

Houston Section Membership Summary

By Sophia Bright, Membership Chair

The Houston Section has grown considerably in the last year.According to our records professional membership has increased from 730 in December of 1999 to 861 this month.We have also seen a recent increase in student membership in the last two months (109 in November to 122 in December).The National Educator Associate membership has been holding steady at approximately 64.

This is the highest level we have been at in the last 4 years!So, let’s make sure to maintain this level of success and keep our section strong.Please be sure to renew your memberships when you receive your renewal notices and to also update your member records so that you are still able to benefit from all that AIAA has to offer.

Help AIAA Help You - Update Your Member Records!!

By Sophia Bright, Membership Chair
It is often said that the aerospace industry is the only place where you can have the same job for five years and work for five different companies.That is especially true given the industry wide consolidation that has happened in the last few years.As companies have changed so have the building signs and the business cards – but is your AIAA member record up to date?Knowing where our members are working is vital to the Houston Section in obtaining corporate support for local AIAA activities (such as our monthly dinner meeting).Take a few minutes and visit the AIAA website at http://www.aiaa.org/service/address.html to update your member information or call customer service at 1-800-639-2422.Feel free to also contact T. Sophia Bright, Houston Section Membership Chair, at 281-244-4735 if you have questions regarding your membership.

Note: the WAR 2001 Conference will be held in the morning of April 27th, 2001 at the same location as INNOVATIONS 2001.  The Luncheon is common to both.

More info available (AIAA Houston Website) at:  http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/aiaa/

The STI Center and Some New Astrodynamics Books

by Dr. Albert. A. Jackson, Chair Astrodynamics Committee

When I first came to The Manned Spacecraft Center in 1966 I was pleasantly surprised to find a compact, but very delightful library here at this site. Located then in building 12. When building 45 was built a special wing became the Technical Library and a larger operation. As time went on MSC became JSC and, alas, the main library began a bit of a decline. It was with great pleasure that several years ago the main technical library at JSC blossomed anew! The JSC Scientific and Technical Information Center (STI) it has not only expanded its services it has even spruced up the décor and has a great help staff now. I encourage anyone, who has not, to go by and take advantage of an outstanding library!

For me the most outstanding aspect is more attention is being paid to the book collection, especially in the area of Astronautics. In fact the STI has undertaken to fill their collection with all the AIAA published books on Astronautics as well as other publishers.

The STI would like your feedback on what to get for its book collection. Suggestions for books relevant to all technical activities at JSC are welcome. Go to their web page at 

http://stic.jsc.nasa.govand click on ‘feedback’ to make your suggestions.

Some new Books in Astrodynamics at the JSC STI Center (The Library Bldg. 45)

Celestial mechanics books had long hiatus in the first half of this century, until the age of Sputnik. Spaceflight re-kindled a new interest and helped invent the inclusive name ‘Astrodynamics’. In the 1960’s there was a surfeit of books on the dynamics of spacecraft and bodies in the solar system. Just before the end of the Apollo program there was a decline in astrodynamics books. However, for the last 15 years due to new interest in chaos theory of the solar system and a new interest in space dynamics many new books on astrodynamics have appeared.

For a long time it has been known that there existed many astrodynamics books published in Russia but most appeared here as translations in NASA technical reports. Since the end of the cold war some of these are being translated and some Russian researchers have begun to publish monographs. Some new one of interest follow.

Analytical Techniques of Celestial Mechanics
Victor A. Brumberg,Springer Verlag Publisher

Victor Brumberg at the Institute of Applied Astronomy St. Petersburg has been an internationally known space dynamics researcher for a long time. Recently he has published some very unique books on celestial mechanics. 

Analytical Techniques of Celestial Mechanics describes contemporary analytical and semi-analytical techniques for solving typical celestial mechanics problems by computer. It presents new algorithms of perturbation theory and helps to develop, on the basis of some general computer algebra systems, specialized software enabling one to construct analytical theories of the motion of celestial objects. Particular attention is paid to applying the elliptic function expansions to economize on the number of terms in the resulting series in problems with large values of parameters. Even some problems considered as intractable may now be treated efficiently. 

Celestial Mechanics at High Eccentricities
Victor Brumberg and Eugene V. Brumberg, Gordon and Breach Publishers

This book presents techniques for the study of the motion of space craft and solar system bodies moving in highly eccentric orbits. 

The location of body in a highly eccentric orbit presents a special problem when formulated in the usual orbital elements. The authors introduce approaches for solving the anomaly problems by means of the usual mean, true, eccentric anomaly and they introduce a new kind called the elliptic anomaly.
This book also treats the problem of perturbation theory for eccentric orbits, topic not usually covered in classical books on celestial mechanics. These techniques are applied to satellite and asteroid orbits.

Multiple Gravity Assist Interplanetary Trajectories
A.V. Labunsky, O.V. Papkov, and K.G. Sukhanov, Gordon and Breach 

The idea of gravity assist by ‘bouncing’ off a planet’s orbit in the solar system started with the celestial mechanics problem of Jupiter crossing comets ejected from the solar system by Jovian dynamics. Even though Tsiolkovskii and Tsander studied the problem it was not until the classic paper of G.A. Crocco in 1956 that a ‘Grand Tour’ of the outer planets was seen as a great free-ride for a space craft. The Voyager space craft achieved ,in fact, this realization. 
This book is the only single topic monograph on ‘gravitational bounce’ maneuvers in English. The authors formulate clearly this kind of perturbation maneuver and show how to compute a synthesis of fly-by paths in the solar system for reaching various destinations. Multi-purpose flights to all the planets are presented with various kinds encounter geometry. There are chapters on multi encounter trajectories in planet – satellite systems (the Galileo spacecraft has spent a lot of time lately doing just this) and flights to small bodies in the solar system (the NEAR mission is an example of this kind of dynamics.) Even a topic such as optimization of Spaceflight bounce maneuvers is treated.

Calendar of Events