AE 362

(Dr T. Alan Lovell, Instructor)

My Background
B.S. Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Tech, 1991
M.S. Aerospace Engineering, Arizona State Univ, 1994
Ph.D. Aerospace Engineering, Auburn Univ, 2001
Research Aerospace Engineer, U.S. Air Force Research
Laboratory, Space Vehicles Directorate, 2001-Present

First Assignment
Email me NLT MONDAY 22 AUG with the following details:
Your personal background (hometown, etc); how many years have you been at
NMSU?
Your educational background (what major? Fr/Soph/Jr/Sr/MS/PhD?); highest level
math & science courses taken; any course in spacecraft dynamics?
Have you had ME 237?
Have you had MATH 392?
Are you proficient with Canvas? (i.e. for downloading lecture notes/slides,
assignments, etc)
I will take the email address from which you send this assignment to be the address
you prefer to be contacted at for this class

Other Comments
Curtis textbook will serve as the
basis for each lecture (3rd Edition
recommended); I STRONGLY
recommend bringing the textbook
to class; I may refer to various
tables/figures/text
passages/examples
I will frequently post important
documents on Canvas: course
syllabus, lecture slides, HW
assignments, & other helpful items
I will teach the class via Adobe
Connect (usually from the NMSU
teaching center in ABQ)

Comments (Contd)
Your overall grade will consist of 4 components:
HW (30%)
Exam 1 (20%)
Exam 2 (20%)
Final exam (30%)

Comments (Contd)
The syllabus contains very important details/policies concerning
HW; read this information carefully & let me know if you have
questions

SHOW YOUR WORK for each HW problem,

including (1) which equation(s) you use; (2) which values you insert
in the equation; (3) calculation of the answer (with consistent units)
There are NO group assignments in this course; all work you submit
is to be your own
We will have our 1st HW hopefully next week

Comments (Contd)
Any news/announcements I have between lectures will be
posted to Canvas
Be sure to set up your notifications in Canvas to copy
announcements to your email (or else check the
Announcements section frequently)
Always bring the Curtis textbook to class; I will draw on it
FREQUENTLY during the lectures

ORBITAL MECHANICS
Chapter 1 - Dynamics of Point
Masses

Chapter Outline
1.2 Vectors
1.3 Kinematics
1.4 Mass, force and Newtons law of gravitation
1.5 Newtons law of motion
1.6 Time derivatives of moving vectors
1.7 Relative motion

1.2 Vectors

Figure 1.1 All of these vectors may be denoted A, since their

magnitudes and directions are the same.

1.2 Vectors
Consider the vectors A Ax i Ay j Az k and B Bxi B y j Bz k
The sum or resultant C of A and B is defined by

C = A+B Ax Bx i Ay B y j Az Bz k

By construction, vector addition is commutative, i.e. A+B = B+A

1.2 Vectors
The resultant can also be determined graphically using the
parallelogram rule.

Figure 1.2 Parallelogram rule of vector addition.

1.2 Vectors
Consider the vector A Ax i Ay j Az k
Magnitude of A:
Unit vector in the direction of A:

A
A

where

Figure 1.3 Three-dimensional,

right-handed Cartesian
coordinate system.

The magnitude of a unit vector is ONE

(hence the name)

1.2 Vectors

Figure 1.4 Direction angles in three

dimensions (also called direction cosines).

1.2 Vectors
To express a 2-D vector requires TWO pieces of information:
its

i and j components

magnitude

and ONE angle

To express a 3-D vector requires THREE pieces of information:

its

i, j, and k components

magnitude

and TWO angles

So why are there THREE direction angles??

Only

TWO angles are needed to uniquely define the vector (the

3rd angle can be determined given the values of the other two)

1.2 Vectors
The dot product of two vectors is a scalar defined as
magnitude/direction formula for dot product
where is the angle between the heads of
the vectors.
1 A B
cos

AB

If A Axi Ay j Az k and B Bx i B y j Bz k

then A B Ax Bx Ay B y Az Bz
(Cartesian formula for dot product)
The dot product is zero if is 900.

Figure 1.5 The angle

between two vectors brought
tail to tail by parallel shift.

The dot product is commutative: A B B A

1.2 Vectors

Scalar projection of B onto A

B cos
(also called the component of B in the
direction of A)

Scalar projection of A onto B

A cos
(also called the component of A in the
direction of B)

Figure 1.6 Projecting the

vector B onto the direction
of A.

1.2 Vectors

A B B A

1.2 Vectors
REMEMBER
The dot product of two vectors yields a SCALAR
The cross product of two vectors yields a VECTOR that is perpendicular to both of the vectors
Be sure you know the right-hand rule, as it pertains to cross products! (Learn it, review it,
study it)
Also useful are the bac-cab rule:

& the interchange of the dot and the cross: