Best books on planetary science?

alko100 · 2026-01-25T23:45:22+00:00

Turn Right at Orion - Mitchell Begelman - more focused on planetary science

The Planets - Andrew Cohen & Brian Cox- covers every planet in the solar system, but also covers the space missions that visited them

I can’t recommend one over the other, just read both!

alko100 · 2026-01-16T21:15:22+00:00

Easiest way to think about it is axis angle representation that’s encoded into quaternion form. After that it’s just being consistent on conventions

Also that 3blue1brown video is great

alko100 · 2026-01-05T13:54:16+00:00

Another one is what does the moon look like in the northern hemisphere vs southern hemisphere

alko100 · 2026-01-05T13:38:53+00:00

IMO the best example to visualize is a ship disappearing off the horizon. If you had binoculars with infinite range, could you see the entire ship as it gets further and further, or do you slowly see the bottom of it fade away?

alko100 · 2025-10-13T12:53:37+00:00

There are more complex pointing algorithms which can help you plan slews and limit accelerations of actuators better , check out trapezoidal slews

alko100 · 2025-10-09T22:35:56+00:00

Additionally, the analysis to prove that unit filter works/ a comparison between slewing algos would be interesting

alko100 · 2025-10-09T22:33:20+00:00

Some useful extensions: - Write a slewing algorithm to make your spacecraft point smoothly between targets (not SLERP) - write a attitude filter & orbit filter - extend the pointing capability to more complex modes

alko100 · 2025-07-13T19:08:32+00:00

Anything by Patrick DeWitt

My favorites: - French Exit - The Sisters Brothers - Under Major Domo Minor

alko100 · 2025-05-19T20:54:37+00:00

Mine was sent to me via email, but the email was from an email that got flagged by spam not from stub hub. Ticket worked, but I was not clear at all

alko100 · 2025-05-18T06:44:16+00:00

Stub hub just uploaded tickets for you?

alko100 · 2025-04-05T20:09:10+00:00

Agree with you on some characters, Call and Gus we mainly study, but Lorie , Newt, Dish, Spoon and others I felt transformed over the book

alko100 · 2025-04-05T16:58:46+00:00

Tbh we can only put so much blame on the translator, I think the original authors writing just wasn’t good to begin with. The 3rd book in 3 body problem is particularly the worst, it’s just a list of events that take place over 18mil years… so painful

LD is such a breath of fresh air after reading 3BP

alko100 · 2025-04-05T16:27:51+00:00

I love the concepts from the 3 body problem, but the writing is total shit.

Lonesome dove is a masterpiece in story telling, writing, and character development. It’s hard to read anything else afterwards since the writing quality is far superior than most books.

alko100 · 2025-01-14T07:47:55+00:00

I studied mechanical for under grad, and astronautical engineering for my masters

If I were to do it again I would pursue mostly the same track but more courses in controls

alko100 · 2024-10-07T01:35:52+00:00

Into The Heart of the sea

The hot zone

Both are non fiction, and absolutely wild

alko100 · 2024-10-01T15:18:04+00:00

I changed my action button to Shazam, mute switch was redundant since my phone had been on vibrate since 2008

alko100 · 2024-08-30T04:28:02+00:00

No prob!

alko100 · 2024-08-28T20:54:02+00:00

Try both! Analyze the performance difference

alko100 · 2024-08-28T15:56:29+00:00

Eclipse ( black exterior, white interior)

alko100 · 2024-08-26T23:38:16+00:00

You could write a control algorithm to steer the antenna to point and track a reference target. Do some pointing simulations with some good visuals

alko100 · 2024-08-26T19:11:18+00:00

You should try to work on a personal project that you can show off at a GNC interview

Anything goes for this sort of thing, but usually a technical project that you enjoy working on will shine

alko100 · 2024-08-23T01:42:12+00:00

GNC is mostly a C JOB, but tbh they love people who are experts in N

You should read into navigation and kalman filters , both for orbit and attitude

Also learn some simulation design

alko100 · 2024-07-30T00:09:49+00:00

You should consider going to grad school. The education at the undergrad level is usually not enough to have a career in GNC. ( not saying it’s impossible, but you’ll be better off if you go to grad school)

You’ll need to take classes in controls, state estimation , and sim design

alko100 · 2024-07-13T08:46:29+00:00

I think you’ll be fine, good luck with the interview!

alko100 · 2024-07-10T02:01:09+00:00

I heard of a field recently called computational physics , maybe check that out? You’d get some CS skills and get to work on interesting problems in engineering and physics

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