Vincent L. Pisacane

VINCENT L. PISACANE is the former inaugural Robert A. Heinlein Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the United States Naval Academy. He also served as head of the Space Department, Assistant Director for Research and Exploratory Development, and Director of the Institute for Advanced Science and Technology in Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He also held a joint appointment in the Biomedical Engineering Department at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University, an M.S. in Applied Mechanics and Mathematics, and a Ph.D. in Applied Mechanics and Physics from Michigan State University, as well as a postdoctoral fellowship in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University. He has been the principal investigator of several NASA grants and is the editor of a book on space systems engineering and the author of well over a hundred publications and presentations on space systems. He currently teaches graduate classes on space systems engineering at the Johns Hopkins University. He is a fellow of the AIAA.

The Space Environment and Its Effects on Space Systems, Second Edition is significantly revised and expanded, featuring new chapters on risk management, formation and evolution of the universe, and time and reference systems. It also includes expanded chapters on space radiation. This book is intended to serve two audiences: firstly, those who wish to obtain an understanding of the physics of the space environment; and secondly, those who wish to understand the engineering aspects of the effects of the space environment on space systems. The level of the material is appropriate for an undergraduate or beginning graduate engineering audience and for those experts, in fields other than the space environment, who wish to obtain a basic knowledge of the space environment and its effects on the design and performance of space systems. While the primary emphasis of the book is the interaction of spacecraft with the Earth’s environment, the topics also address the extraterrestrial environment. The Space Environment and Its Effects on Space Systems, Second Edition has been developed so that the topics, and the depth with which they are presented, are appropriate for a good understanding by someone with the equivalent of an undergraduate degree in the sciences and engineering and knowledge of differential and integral calculus. To assist the reader, sufficient numerical examples are provided and the problem sets for each chapter include answers. Copious references are provided that help direct the reader to additional information. A solutions manual is also available to instructors. The material included is sufficient for either a one semester offering on selected topics or a fuller immersion in a two semester offering. Topics can be selected to emphasize the space environment for a physics-centric class, or the interactions with space systems for an engineering-centric class.