R.N. Dewitt - Böcker

This work contains the proceedings of a NATO Advanced Studies Institute, which emphasized the basic physics of the space environment and the engineering aspects of the environment's interactions with spacecraft. The book's 35 chapters, each written by an international expert on the topic, bring together the latest data characterizing the space environment and the analyses of the interactions of systems in that environment. The contents are underscored by our constantly developing understanding of space which has resulted from the vast quantity of recent data and experiments coupled with a worldwide renewal of interest in extended satellite operations for military, commercial and scientific missions. These proceedings provide a useful tool which should assist spacecraft engineers in the design and construction of payloads capable of accommodating long-term interactions with the space environment. They may be used equally effectively as a reference text for the designer or for the student at the advanced undergraduate or graduate level.

A NATO Advanced Study Institute (ASI) on the Behavior of Systems in the Space Environment was held at the Atholl Palace Hotel, Pitlochry, Perthshire, Scotland, from July 7 through July 19, 1991. This publication is the Proceedings of the Institute. The NATO Advanced Study Institute Program of the NATO Science Committee is a unique and valuable forum, under whose auspices almost one thousand international tutorial meetings have been held since the inception of the program in 1959. The ASI is intended to be primarily a high-level teaching activity at which a carefully defined subject is presented in a systematic and coherently structured program. The subject is treated in considerable depth by lecturers eminent; in their :(ield and of international standing. The subject is presented to other scientists who either will already have specialized in the field or possess an advanced general background. The ASI is aimed at approximately the post-doctoral level. This ASI emphasized the basic physics of the space environment and the engineering aspects of the environment's interactions with spacecraft.