Satellite Books

We got this book from the library and I would never buy it, but I am writing this review to warn other parents. The dog in this story is vicious and actively chases the little boy "with teeth snapping." The happy ending? The boy approaches the dog with a treat and lo and behold, it's a nice dog after all!

Read the news - how many children have been maimed or killed by out of control dogs? I am a loving dog owner, but I teach my small children to NEVER approach a dog in public. I only let them go near strange dogs if I have personally checked them out, and I am right next to them.

Children are especially vulnerable to attacks by dogs since their faces and throats are down at the dog's height. Imagine a loose, untrained 100-pound Rottweiler near one of the small children of those other blissful reviewers - this book teaches the child to approach the dog... it just wants love, and all the barking and snapping is just a front!

For an author to write a book like this is inconceivable to me. If you want to teach a gentle lesson about gruff exteriors hiding someone who really just wants love, use another person or another kind of animal, but not a vicious dog that can kill a child.

Mad Dog McGraw is wonderfully written and illustrated. Our Grandchildren require that it be read several times in an evening. The message contained in the book is not lost on a three year old who is enthralled with the change in the main character as well as the little boy. She has come to understand it and relates it to things which come up in her daily life.

We checked this book out from the library and we now have to buy it because it became one of our 20 month old sons favorite books. He loves looking at the wonderful illustrations as I read the story to him.

This is one funny story and yet sentimental at the same time. Mad Dog McGraw seems to be living up to his name, pretty frightening to the kid down the block. No matter how he tries to avoid Mad Dog, he seems to be everywhere. Mom comes to the rescue with a great idea to help the 2 of them "live happily ever after". The pictures portray Mad Dog in exactly the right light! But you can't help loving a dog like that when you see him smile.

I agree with my children that this book is simply adorable! My four-year-old thinks the main character has some "great ideas" in dealing with his dilemma while my two-year-old wants his own mad dog! It is a very funny book and the goofy illustrations add to the humor. In addition, there is a very good lesson for the children (and me!) regarding relationships with others.

This is a graduate level book, but contains everything an undergraduate, engineer, or scientist needs as a reference on the subject. If I was looking for a professor to study under, they would be required to list this book in their syllabus. A software development engineer will find the basis for developing algorithms, or maintaining production software. 16 Pages of Symbol definitions, 37 Pages of Solutions, 8 pages of References.

As a software developer, I was looking for help in developing an algorithm for tracking targets. This book fits the bill perfectly. The author starts with very basic examples, and shows step-by-step how to increase the complexity to work for a myriad of problems. He also shows how many of the filters used for tracking problems are related (mostly just special cases of a very simple algorithm), and when one should be used instead of another (or in some cases why and how to use multiple filters together). The only downside is that there are multiple typos; perhaps the publisher can fix these in the next edition.

Brookner makes a difficult topic very easy to understand without watering down content. I highly recommend this book to anyone filtering position estimates!

The author tries to make the subject easier than it can be made. He does mention general concepts but does not mention under what circumstances these hold. The danger comes when you try to implement it. Of course you get an answer but as the author puts it himself: "surprise!" the answer is wrong because you were not told about the validity of your assumptions. As an example take the issue of the discrete noise covariance matrix i.e. Q. The author gives a simple recipe for constructing this matrix. But he does not tell you that it is only valid for small step size. If you try larger time steps you are in big trouble. The book contains occasional insightful remarks. Also the same filter has several different names in the same paragraph, which can cause confusion.

Brookner builds up from the simplest case (a target moving at constant speed and constant heading) and gradually builds these simple equations into the simplest-case Kalman filter. And this is just in the first chapter! His approach is intuitive; he is rigorous enough, but this book is probably more for engineers than for mathematicians. He develops everything quite logically; in the very earliest going, normal algebraic equations are used and only when it makes sense does he switch to linear algebra, explaining what its advantages are. Great book! Even though the job disappeared, I kept my copy (despite the price!)

This slim book tries valiantly to summarize the entire range of space launch and in-space propulsion concepts, but does a questionable job of it.

The book has the usual problems of a very compressed summary -- some concepts, and many specific technologies and projects, are left out entirely, and there's no room to do more than briefly describe most of the concepts that are included. The level is variable: parts are apparently aimed at people with at least an undergraduate technical education -- there's lots of algebra, and more than a few differential equations -- yet many concepts are described only in qualitative terms, perhaps with a picture or diagram. Some references are to standard reference works or review articles intended for nonspecialists, while others are to specialized research papers likely to puzzle most readers who want more information -- assuming they can find the cited journals at all.

However, the book's major problem is that it's full of errors -- mostly minor individually, but distressing taken as a whole. I work in this field, and know many of the projects mentioned and researchers cited; without actively looking I noticed eleven errors in 38 pages. These range from a faulty diagram (Fig. 2.7) to a gross overstatement of the funding for one project, to fundamental errors in the descriptions of pulsed detonation engines ("a compression wave travels through the tube at the speed of sound" when in fact a detonation is a faster-than-sound process; a sonic or subsonic process is a deflagration) and pneumatic catapults.

If you want quick layman's introductions to a wide variety of advanced concepts, there are better summaries on line.

I find the subject of this book, advanced space propulsion systems, very interesting. And there's plenty of good material in the book. Still, I wish it had delved into some of the topics in greater detail. And while I tend to try to be as comprehensive as possible when I cover a field, I have to admit that Tajmar covers some topics I would actually have skipped.

The book starts with a quick overview of rocket propulsion, including monopropellant and bipropellant engines. And we soon discover that Tajmar is going to take us from the fundamentals of rocket science into more speculative areas. He briefly discusses "advanced propellants" such as atomic hydrogen, metastable helium, and metallic hydrogen. Let's just say that in spite of (or maybe due to) my familiarity with these ideas, it would not have occurred to me to mention them in a book.

The author then evaluates launch assist technologies. These include aircraft assists, catapults, cannons, gas guns, ram accelerators, and electromagnetic (and magnetohydrodynamic) accelerators. There's even a mention of reducing drag with surface charging.

Next we get to nuclear propulsion. I would have expanded the section on fission propulsion, and thought twice about including the material on fusion propulsion and antimatter propulsion.

I think the best part of the book is the chapter on electric propulsion systems. There's plenty of information, including excellent photographs, of resistojets, arcjets, Hall thrusters, Kaufmann thrusters, Field Emission thrusters, Colloid thrusters, and more. Plus, there is a short section that could have been expanded on the threat of induced interactions between the plasma emitted by the propulsion system and the spacecraft.

Since this book looks to the future, that means a discussion of propulsion systems applicable for use on microspacecraft. Tajmar therefore includes a chapter on micropropulsion.

The next section is very interesting and not wholly speculative: "propellantless propulsion." That means tethers, laser propulsion, solar sails, and magnetic sails. Of these, I think solar sails surely deserved at least a few more pages.

The final chapter is a leap into what I think of as science fiction. That includes what I call "quantum propulsion" (an attempt to modify the vacuum and use the energy generated to propel a spacecraft). And it includes a attempts to couple gravitation and electromagnetism. And my, um, favorite: superconductor gravitational shielding. I might have omitted this chapter.

It's a useful book, but I think it could be improved.

This book is the most complete guide I've ever seen. The best part about this book is that anyone can read it and get something from it. Even a PhD in aerospace engineering can use it as a reference.

This book has it all. All the todays propulsions systems that you think of.

Very good text. But not the latest edition. You probably want "GNSS Theory and Practice"

This text provides a great introduction to the *theory* of GPS. It is rigorous on the mathematics so I wouldn't recommend it for someone who just needs a general understanding of how GPS operates or an understanding of the applications of GPS (e.g. software project managers or other personnel who aren't actually implementing sat or receiver software). For those who need to dive into the theory and algorithms with of GPS, you should have a firm understanding of trigonometry, linear algebra (matrix operations) and basic calculus before reading this text. As one reviewer pointed out, it does cover the application of GPS to surveying in depth.

If you are software engineer working on an application that only needs to know what comes out of a GPS receiver's serial data port and how to make use of if, this book isn't for you. There are other texts available that cover most of the material that you need. If you need to know what comes out of a GPS receiver's data port (the interface specification), you should refer to (controlled access) the latest version of ICD-GPS-153 "GPS User Equipment Interface Control Document for the GPS Standard Serial Interface Protocol". Then refer to numerous other texts on coordinate transformations, projections, etc. However, this is not to say that this book is completely useless for such a developer as it does cover material such as coordinate transformations with respect to the GPS reference system (WGS-84) and it touches on the topic of projections that I will return to shortly.

My primary complaint with the text is the notation utilized. The text makes use of non-standard (or perhaps it would be better to say "archaic") vector and matrix notation. At least, non-standard in my experience. This could be driven by technical limitations in the publishing/printing process used by Springer or other reasons. I personally have few texts by the publisher with which to compare this text. I found myself having to make notes or constantly flipping back-and-forth just to remind myself of what a particular symbol represented. If you have a background in geodesy or Geographic Information Systems (GIS), you may find the notation alien in appearance.

The text offers an inverse method of transforming Geocentric ECEF (X,Y,Z) coordinates into Geodetic (latitude, longitude, height). A topic that many authors shy away from. I haven't studied the approach or compared it to algorithms that I currently use. Therefore, for the software developer, you might want to compare these results with those obtained by other algorithms developed by Bowring, Nautiyal and others. There are several variations of Bowring's algorithm sprinkled around the Internet, each developed to meet specific needs (e.g. extreme accuracy or extreme speed of execution). The developer should explore all algorithmic approaches and determine the best for his/her application.

The text touches on the Transverse Mercator projection and the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid reference system. The coverage of UTM is inadequate for someone needing to implement it in software. I would refer the reader to the Defense Mapping Agency (DMA, now the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, or NGA) document 8358.2 "The Universal Grids: Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) and Universal Polar Stereographic (UPS)" for a thorough treatment of the UTM grid reference system. This document is available to the public on the Internet.

For a text that covers practice/applications of GPS, I would like to see some detailed discussion of the interfaces between receivers and external equipment (i.e. computers & application software) with respect to ICD-GPS-153. I believe that some discussion of this can be made without revealing sensitive interface details.

The reference section is superb and the book sprinkles many useful online resources throughout the text.

I found the comparison of GPS to GLONASS (Russian equivalent to GPS) particularly interesting. There is only a brief mention of Galileo (the European civial "GPS" system).

As a commercial GPS user, I was looking for a book that would offer a fairly basic overview of GPS, but that would still go into significant detail. This book does exactly that, but it also covers a lot of the mathematical theory behind GPS. This book certainly isn't introductory and I think would be more suited to a surveyor with a good knowledge of surveying techniques who was interested in GPS. The mathematics gets a bit heavy for a non-mathematician but Chapter 7 (Surveying with GPS) is an excellent introduction/review of the practical uses of GPS in the field. A good intermediate-advanced level book, probably very suited to students.

This is an excellent book for anyone that works with spacecraft geometry and/or timekeeping. It contains concise descriptions of coordinate systems, orbital elements and timekeeping. I've been using it as an algorithm 'cookbook'. This is not a book for a casual GPS user, or someone who is sqeamish about math. It's much easier to use than the Astronomical Almanac for basic algorithms. Like a fool, I lent it out. Now I need to buy another one.

I am just getting started in the class where I am using this book and so far it is quite informative

I hope to meet help for my RS course to undergraduate university students

Great information on how to read satellite images. Will greatly help in Meteorology studies whether you're a student or a more advanced hobbyist. It is best to have an introduction into meteorology such as "Meteorology Today" before reading this book. It will help in your understanding of the text.

I was disappointed as the material covered only meterology. While very good, I was hoping for some coverage of vegetation and geology.

I hesitated a bit before purchasing this book because of the price and my relative inexperience in this field. It is indeed a classic textbook because it begins every topic with a clear explanation of the underlying theory and its importance in understanding satellite communications. The authors have also provided chapter-end exercises to reinforce the key points. Though my college degree is in Chemistry and never had any class in engineering or computer science, the concepts are well understood. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a good theoretical knowledge of satellite communication technology

I bought this book blindly without seeing the contents first (what a stupid mistake!) only because it said 'the first half of the book deals with link power budgets'. So you would think that this book has a lot of details about link budget calculations right? Wrong! Most of the stuff in this book is only in introductory level. The link budget calculation that was boasted as the main feature of the book is very superficial, the kind of stuff that you would find in any satellite communications book out there. If you are looking for a good reference for link budget calculation, I recommend Tri T. Ha's. It has a Crane's rain model in there. (But in the real work, people normally use ITU model. So you will need some of the ITU's recommendation papers that have the model calculations as well. For example, P 620 - just to name one.)

In all, this book is a fairly good introduction. I would have given it more stars if it were priced at around [price]. It is simply too expensive. If you want a better introduction book in satellite communications at lower price, go for Dennis Roddy's.

This text was required for a college course in Satellite Communications. This book is one of the BEST at explaining satellite operations and space communications principles. I used the Wertz/Larson "SMAD" book in previous classes and was puzzled by its explanation of several space communications concepts such as EIRP and Power Flux Density. This book gives simple, common-sense explanations for these types of concepts. The first chapter alone gave me more of a complete understanding of communications satellite systems than anything I read in Wertz/Larson.

Many of the calculations presented in this book involve decibels and logarithms and a math review would be helpful for most people. Since most communications calculations in general are done in decibels, this math is unavoidable but easily mastered with a little high school math review.

A good complement for this text is the book "Silicon Sky" by Gary Dorsey. This is the story of Orbital Sciences Corp/Orbcomm which is attempting to build a private communications satellite system. For a "business history" book, it gets surprisingly deep into the details of communications satellite engineering and provides a good real-world context for understanding the material in "Principles of Communications Satellites".

Matthew Rohrer established his plain-spoken, dreamy style in his 1995 book, A Hummock in the Malookas (two years before Clover's mentor/professor Jorie Graham got his book published). There is no pseudo-intellectuality or political posturing in Rohrer's work, and his attitude is never snide. Rohrer's poetry does exude a hipness, though, which could be a sin in certain quarters, except that Rohrer's attitude in his poems seems far more embracing and genuine than Clover's preening. And Rohrer's style has nothing in common with Clover's, or Graham's, and that should be refreshing to readers looking for poems that don't gyrate self-consciously across the page.

While Hummock was imaginative and unsettling, Satellite demonstrates a darker vision. Rohrer has matured a bit, he's more intent on having each poem forward something--an idea, an image, an emotion, an arrangement--in unexpected and often breathtaking ways. Satellite is subtly sinister, and it grows with repeated readings. It might not be as instantly likeable as Hummock, but it has more lasting power.

I went to school with both Clover and Rohrer, and I'm not close with either. I can, however, attest to the fact that both poets have very different styles and neither has influenced the other. Satellite is singular in its vision, and grows clearly from the strengths of Rohrer's first book. It is a compelling book that takes considerably more effort to read than A Hummock. Ms. Fuller would do herself a favor if she took the time to read past "surfaces" and offer more than just a knee jerk reaction.

This poet likes surfaces, glitterings on the tops of otherwise real emotions and ideas. It's one of the first glimpses of the effect that young gun Joshua Clover has had on his generation. I can't recommedn this book at all.

I just read "That Darn Squid God" (which is wonderful), and just found out that Nick Pollotta is also Jack Hopkins (along with a heck of a lot of other names).
Great stuff! Read it and see for yourself.

I'm a bigger fan of of his Bureau 13 novels, but this series is also a blast. Fun characters and good pacing with several intersting plot twists. I luaghed out loud so many times that I can safely reccomend this book to anyone.

Satellite Night News is one of the most outrageously funny scifi books that I have ever come across, and I have come across many in my time. However, some of the humor contained in this novel is not suitable for young children, but you adults may find it quite amusing.

The plot: Far in the future, News is the ULTIMATE form of entertainment, at least for those braving the wilds of space. Competing news networks vie for the highest ratings, and they are not all too concerned what they have to do for a story (which leads to some humorous moments). However, the news world is soon to be enmeshed in the ultimate news story: interplanetary war. The Satellite Night News team attempts to uncover the reasons for the war, and what they discover shocks them, a deep, deadly secret that may emperil the entire solar system!

I really enjoyed this book, despite it's small size. Although somewhat outdated, I would say that 90% of the information provided was very helpful, and explains satellite technology in layman's terms, and has good graphics to assist in the explanations. Highly recommended for those just starting out in satcom.

An excellent introduction to satellite communications. I use this book constantly to provide non-engineers and engineers alike with simple answers to common questions. I hand this book out to new employees as well as customers so that we can speak a common language.

In addition, with the authors permission I used this as the textbook to teach students a Vo-Technical high school.

I highly recommend this book. SAW

A useful text for those who need to know more about the user technology (ground) in sat-comms. It's a little dated and with a decidedly USA-centric bias but its relatively small size and friendly style more than compensate.

It's not really of use to those who need to know about the satellites themselves, much of what is said can be found in far more detail although in decidedly more expensive texts.

Its real plus is that you can learn an awful lot if you read the whole thing and you can do that in a weekend. You can't say that about Messrs Marel et al!

I am an aerospace engineering student at the undergraduate level and used this text in an astrodynamics course. I felt that the author did a good job developing the fundamentals needed but lacked some important derivations that would have been usefull at times. I also enjoyed some of the non-technical aspects of this book as well, such as the sections devoted to our solar system and its characteristics.

I used this book along with Fundamentals of Astrodynamics by Roger Bate, Donald Mueller, and Jerry White - which has been used at my university for more than twenty-five years. I would suggest purchasing both books at once as doing so will give both a modern viewpoint of the subject as well as the derivations needed to understand the basics.

This book is easy to read and contains several good exercises. Ideal for undergrads looking to learn about orbital mechanics, attitude control, and trajectories. Also excellent as a quick reference for more advanced students. The only complaint I have about the book is that some of the diagrams are not very well drawn, which can be somewhat annoying, especially if it's for a homework problem!

This book is really designed for a beginner level class in astrodynamics. I used it for my beginner class, and I found the book to be extremely helpful. Now, taking graduate level courses in astrodynamics, I still use Wiesel's book! When I need to look up basic formulas, I use this book often. If you're looking for a more advanced book in astrodynamics, look into Vallado's Fundamentals of Astrodynamics and Applications. However, for the beginner level, Wiesel does an excellent job of explaining the material and presenting the mathematics behind the equations.