/u/another_user_name posted this list a while back. Actual aerospace textbooks are towards the bottom but you'll need a working knowledge of the prereqs first.

Non-core/Pre-reqs:

Mathematics:

Calculus.

1-4) Calculus, Stewart -- This is a very common book and I felt it was ok, but there's mixed opinions about it. Try to get a cheap, used copy.

1-4) Calculus, A New Horizon, Anton -- This is highly valued by many people, but I haven't read it.

1-4) Essential Calculus With Applications, Silverman -- Dover book.

More discussion in this reddit thread.

Linear Algebra

3) Linear Algebra and Its Applications,Lay -- I had this one in school. I think it was decent.

3) Linear Algebra, Shilov -- Dover book.

Differential Equations

4) An Introduction to Ordinary Differential Equations, Coddington -- Dover book, highly reviewed on Amazon.

G) Partial Differential Equations, Evans

G) Partial Differential Equations For Scientists and Engineers, Farlow

More discussion here.

Numerical Analysis

5) Numerical Analysis, Burden and Faires

Chemistry:

1. General Chemistry, Pauling is a good, low cost choice. I'm not sure what we used in school.
   
   

   Physics:
   

   
   2-4) Physics, Cutnel -- This was highly recommended, but I've not read it.
   
   

   Programming:
   

   
   

   Introductory Programming
   

   
   Programming is becoming unavoidable as an engineering skill. I think Python is a strong introductory language that's got a lot of uses in industry.
   
   

2. Learning Python, Lutz
   
   
3. Learn Python the Hard Way, Shaw -- Gaining popularity, also free online.
   
   

   Core Curriculum:
   

   
   

   Introduction:
   

   
   

4. Introduction to Flight, Anderson
   
   

   Aerodynamics:
   

   
   

5. Introduction to Fluid Mechanics, Fox, Pritchard McDonald
   
   
6. Fundamentals of Aerodynamics, Anderson
   
   
7. Theory of Wing Sections, Abbot and von Doenhoff -- Dover book, but very good for what it is.
   
   
8. Aerodynamics for Engineers, Bertin and Cummings -- Didn't use this as the text (used Anderson instead) but it's got more on stuff like Vortex Lattice Methods.
   
   
9. Modern Compressible Flow: With Historical Perspective, Anderson
   
   
10. Computational Fluid Dynamics, Anderson
    
    

    Thermodynamics, Heat transfer and Propulsion:
    

    
    

11. Introduction to Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer, Cengel
    
    
12. Mechanics and Thermodynamics of Propulsion, Hill and Peterson
    
    

    Flight Mechanics, Stability and Control
    

    
    5+) Flight Stability and Automatic Control, Nelson
    
    5+)[Performance, Stability, Dynamics, and Control of Airplanes, Second Edition](http://www.amazon.com/Performance-Stability-Dynamics-Airplanes-Education/dp/1563475839/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1315534435&sr=8-1, Pamadi) -- I gather this is better than Nelson
    
    

13. Airplane Aerodynamics and Performance, Roskam and Lan
    
    

    Engineering Mechanics and Structures:
    

    
    3-4) Engineering Mechanics: Statics and Dynamics, Hibbeler
    
    

14. Mechanics of Materials, Hibbeler
    
    
15. Mechanical Vibrations, Rao
    
    
16. Practical Stress Analysis for Design Engineers: Design & Analysis of Aerospace Vehicle Structures, Flabel
    
    6-8) Analysis and Design of Flight Vehicle Structures, Bruhn -- A good reference, never really used it as a text.
    
    
17. An Introduction to the Finite Element Method, Reddy
    
    G) Introduction to the Mechanics of a Continuous Medium, Malvern
    
    G) Fracture Mechanics, Anderson
    
    G) Mechanics of Composite Materials, Jones
    
    

    Electrical Engineering
    

    
    

18. Electrical Engineering Principles and Applications, Hambley
    
    

    Design and Optimization
    

    
    

19. Fundamentals of Aircraft and Airship Design, Nicolai and Carinchner
    
    
20. Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach, Raymer
    
    
21. Engineering Optimization: Theory and Practice, Rao
    
    

    Space Systems
    

    
    

22. Fundamentals of Astrodynamics and Applications, Vallado
    
    
23. Introduction to Space Dynamics, Thomson -- Dover book
    
    
24. Orbital Mechanics, Prussing and Conway
    
    
25. Fundamentals of Astrodynamics, Bate, Mueller and White
    
    
26. Space Mission Analysis and Design, Wertz and Larson

• Aerodynamics: Anything written by John Anderson. Specifically Fundamentals of Aerodynamics is a good general text. I have every book he's written and they're all pillars of excellent teaching. If you're just looking to get started, I teach incoming freshmen from his Introduction to Flight book which is very easy to pick up regardless of your level of knowledge.
  
  
• Jet Propulsion: Aircraft Propulsion by Saeed Farokhi. Don't let the name scare you away. This book is my engine bible. He's an excellent professor and his book is a labor of love.
  
  
• Rocket Propulsion: Rocket Propulsion Elements by Sutton & Biblarz is the standard and is the reference I keep on hand for rocket data and theory.
  
  
• Aircraft Design: Jan Roskam's Aircraft Design Series (8 books) contain an amazing wealth of information and serve as a 'cookbook' for aircraft design. Some of the information is dated and it's not always easy to read, but it's the only place you'll find a lot of the information. As a second reference, I keep Nicolai's Fundamentals of Aircraft & Airship Design Part 1 on hand as well. It's very easy to read and I feel it's superior in approach and presentation to Raymer's Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach which is what I originally learned from.

Fun/informative books:


[A Piece of the Sun: The Quest for Fusion Energy: By Daniel Clery] (https://www.amazon.com/Piece-Sun-Quest-Fusion-Energy/dp/1468308890)

[Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking by Charles Seife] (https://www.amazon.com/Sun-Bottle-Strange-History-Thinking/dp/0670020338)

[An Indispensable Truth - How Fusion Power Can Save the Planet, by F.F. Chen] (http://www.springer.com/us/book/9781441978196)

[A Green Sun by Charles Gray] (https://www.amazon.com/Green-Sun-The-Fusion-Book-ebook/dp/B005GBPEAE)
-------------
Technical books:

[Physics of Fully Ionized Gases by Lyman Spitzer Jr.] (https://www.amazon.com/Physics-Fully-Ionized-Gases-Revised/dp/0486449823)

[The Physics of Inertial Fusion: Beam Plasma Interaction, Stefano Atzeni] (https://www.amazon.com/Physics-Inertial-Fusion-Hydrodynamics-International/dp/0199568014)

[Tokamaks by Wesson] (https://books.google.com/books/about/Tokamaks.html?id=BH9vx-iDI74C)

[The Release of Thermonuclear Energy by Inertial Confinement: Ways Towards Ignition by Friedwardt Winterberg] (https://www.amazon.com/Release-Thermonuclear-Energy-Inertial-Confinement/dp/9814295906/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1473696256&sr=1-1&keywords=winterberg+inertial+confinement)
Note: This last book by F. Winterberg contains some of the most difficult mathematics (perhaps something that a Junior in Math might not mind) but contains an extraordinary wealth of new fusion ideas - something that old guard fusioneers would like to see in the hands of the young.
---------
Mathematics is the portal to advanced skills in fusion physics and nuclear engineering. It is not really possible to find a professional first position in the fusion field without a high level of mathematics competency.

For those that have already had two years of college calculus I would recommend the following book if you are interested in a career in fusion.

[Higher Math for Beginners by Y.B. Zeldovich] (https://www.amazon.com/Higher-Mathematics-Beginners-application-physics/dp/B000IW9YSO/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1473696949&sr=1-2&keywords=Higher+for+Beginners+Zeldovich)
----------
Student Internship at the Nation’s National Labs
You get paid while you learn lots of terrific fusion related stuff and there is an avenue leading to a first job in the field of your choice (something everyone needs).
http://see.orau.org/ProgramDescription.aspx?Program=10055
https://internships.llnl.gov/
http://www.lanl.gov/education/undergrad/internships.shtml
http://science.energy.gov/wdts/suli/
-------
NIF Laser Fusion in Fulldome -true out of this world new technology
(note: this high-rez image is interactive - click on picture and drag with your mouse to see additional views of the NIF target chamber)
http://www.xrez.com/case-studies/nif-laser-fusion-in-fulldome/
------
Fusion is a lot closer than most of the main stream analysts currently believe.
Fusion from the engineering side perhaps does not get as much publicity, but many fusion jobs in funded projects have a lot of engineering content. It may actually be easier to get your first position if you have a math or engineering focus (only so many physics professionals get hired, even in really large fusion programs).

What you seem to be not understanding is that using a simulator is far and away the quickest, easiest, and because it is completely free, the cheapest way to learn how rocket science really works. Using a simulator will save you countless hours when it comes to making a rocket over just shoving some chemicals into a tube and crossing your fingers. And speaking of fingers, it just might save you some of them, too. Because people do lose fingers playing with rockets.

Since you seem to be familiar with electronics, I'll make a comparison with LTSpice. Instead of spending hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars on a parts library and expensive test gear you test all of your designs on a tool that is completely free.

This isn't gatekeeping. It is exactly the opposite. It is enabling.

As to sources to learn, one of the best resources is linked right in the sidebar:

https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Propulsion-Elements-George-Sutton/dp/0470080248

There is even a copy available on archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/RocketPropulsionElements8thEditionByOscarBiblarzGeorgeP.Sutton

This is also something that gets mentioned almost daily in discussions here. Pretty much any thread on motor construction has referenced it.

And has already been mentioned numerous times in this thread, Nakka's website is
pretty much the de-facto standard when it comes to sugar propellants. But seriously, any google search on sugar propellants should bring that up so it really shouldn't even need to be said in the first place.

Reading books mostly. Nakka Rocketry is also fantastic. The two main books are Experimental Composite Propellant by Prof. Terry McCreary and Rocket Propulsion Elements by Sutton and Biblarz. The way I did it really was not too hard. I don't really have time right now to perfect my machining skills (as of now they're pretty crude), so I bought the nozzle, casing, and bulkhead from Loki Research. When I get more time, I will definitely look into machining everything by myself. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask!

Also, I have an awesome mentor who has helped me through every step of the process.

It's a big topic, and rocket engineering can't be summed in a reddit post. Buy yourself some books.

If you want more knowledge on the design and analysis of rockets, get a copy of Rocket Propulsion Elements By Sutton. (http://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Propulsion-Elements-George-Sutton/dp/0470080248/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462063371&sr=8-1&keywords=rocket+propulsion+elements) - You don't have to buy the newest edition, thermodynamics hasn't changed.

I believe for vehicle design the best reference is SPAD (Space Propulsion Analysis and Design) (http://www.amazon.com/Space-Propulsion-Analysis-Design-Website/dp/0077230299/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1462063423&sr=8-2&keywords=space+propulsion+analysis+and+design) - Wow, that's more expensive than I thought.

Both books are intended for upper level college courses so you will need to learn other stuff too - like thermodynamics. But if you are interested in the subject then It will keep you motivated to learn the prerequisites as you go.

To start, learn the rocket equation, if you don't know it already. It is easy to do your first order analysis with just that, and add ~1km/s for air + gravity drag. Also, Wikipedia has an astounding amount of information. /u/danielravennest Wrote this wikibook, I haven't read it myself but he is always raving about it so you might find it useful.

Feel free to PM me. I am currently the lead engineer on a small bipropellant in-space propulsion system which is in early development.

The list provided by david is good, and I'm just going to point out two that are really good for understanding rockets and spaceflight:

One is Rocket Propulsion Elements, which I hear is great if you actually want to build your own engine. The other is Fundamentals of Astrodynamics, which helps to explain orbital mechanics, controls, and some other important facets of spaceflight like how we track a satellite from the ground.

While the above is nice, if you are at all interested in rockets, get Rocket Propulsion Elements. Read it and love it, it is pretty much the bible of rocket engines and serves as a good foundation

Well put it this way: If you have something with a drag benefit, it (drag force) goes down, right? Same goes for lift. If you have something that is a benefit to lift (which in automotive is detrimental like drag) then it also goes down. Given that the standard is measurement of vertical force as positive up (lift, Cl) then benefit is downward. Downforce is generally a more colloquial usage.

Sources: This is a source we use in industry if you're looking for more: Hucho, Wolf-Heinrich. Aerodynamics of Road Vehicles: From Fluid Mechanics to Vehicle Engineering. 4th ed. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers, 1998. Print.

This question gets asked all the time on this sub. I did a search for the term books and compiled this list from the dozens of previous answers:

How to Read the Solar System: A Guide to the Stars and Planets by Christ North and Paul Abel.


A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.


A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing by Lawrence Krauss.


Cosmos by Carl Sagan.

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan.


Foundations of Astrophysics by Barbara Ryden and Bradley Peterson.


Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program by Pat Duggins.


An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything by Chris Hadfield.


You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photographs from the International Space Station by Chris Hadfield.


Space Shuttle: The History of Developing the Space Transportation System by Dennis Jenkins.


Wings in Orbit: Scientific and Engineering Legacies of the Space Shuttle, 1971-2010 by Chapline, Hale, Lane, and Lula.


No Downlink: A Dramatic Narrative About the Challenger Accident and Our Time by Claus Jensen.


Voices from the Moon: Apollo Astronauts Describe Their Lunar Experiences by Andrew Chaikin.


A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin.


Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight before NASA by Amy Teitel.


Moon Lander: How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module by Thomas Kelly.


The Scientific Exploration of Venus by Fredric Taylor.


The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe.


Into the Black: The Extraordinary Untold Story of the First Flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia and the Astronauts Who Flew Her by Rowland White and Richard Truly.


An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics by Bradley Carroll and Dale Ostlie.


Rockets, Missiles, and Men in Space by Willy Ley.


Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John Clark.


A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.


Russia in Space by Anatoly Zak.


Rain Of Iron And Ice: The Very Real Threat Of Comet And Asteroid Bombardment by John Lewis.


Mining the Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets by John Lewis.


Asteroid Mining: Wealth for the New Space Economy by John Lewis.


Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris.


The Whole Shebang: A State of the Universe Report by Timothy Ferris.


Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandries by Neil deGrasse Tyson.


Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution by Neil deGrasse Tyson.


Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon by Craig Nelson.


The Martian by Andy Weir.


Packing for Mars:The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach.


The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution by Frank White.


Gravitation by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler.


The Science of Interstellar by Kip Thorne.


Entering Space: An Astronaut’s Oddyssey by Joseph Allen.


International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems by Hopkins, Hopkins, and Isakowitz.


The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene.


How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space by Janna Levin.


This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age by William Burrows.


The Last Man on the Moon by Eugene Cernan.


Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz.


Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger.


The end

PS - /u/DDE93 this list has all the links.

Ok the best place to start is always the bible of rocket science
https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Propulsion-Elements-George-Sutton/dp/0470080248


also this is a great book about overall design

https://www.amazon.com/Spacecraft-Systems-Engineering-Peter-Fortescue/dp/047075012X/ref=pd_sim_14_19?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=047075012X&pd_rd_r=NV7BKDVSN225K69DY2JR&pd_rd_w=m3KtM&pd_rd_wg=XqmQL&psc=1&refRID=NV7BKDVSN225K69DY2JR

Other than rocket engines and structures it would be
https://www.amazon.com/Orbital-Mechanics-Engineering-Students-Aerospace/dp/0080977472/ref=pd_sim_14_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0080977472&pd_rd_r=NV7BKDVSN225K69DY2JR&pd_rd_w=m3KtM&pd_rd_wg=XqmQL&psc=1&refRID=NV7BKDVSN225K69DY2JR

https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Astrodynamics-Dover-Aeronautical-Engineering/dp/0486600610/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0486600610&pd_rd_r=NV7BKDVSN225K69DY2JR&pd_rd_w=m3KtM&pd_rd_wg=XqmQL&psc=1&refRID=NV7BKDVSN225K69DY2JR

After reading that book cover to cover you can branch into multiple aspects of aerospace engineering.

There are also less formal and fun books like https://www.amazon.de/Ignition-informal-history-liquid-propellants/dp/0813507251
or
https://www.amazon.com/History-Liquid-Propellant-Engines-Library/dp/1563476495/ref=pd_sim_14_63?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1563476495&pd_rd_r=NV7BKDVSN225K69DY2JR&pd_rd_w=m3KtM&pd_rd_wg=XqmQL&psc=1&refRID=NV7BKDVSN225K69DY2JR

I'm not sure if this is the book /u/IC_Pandemonium was referring to, but it might be:

The Jet Engine by Rolls-Royce

I haven't had a chance to read it yet but I have heard it is very helpful.

Some other suggestions:

Gas Turbine Theory by Saravanamuttoo

Elements of Gas Turbine Propulsion by Jack Mattingly

Jet Propulsion: A Simple Guide to the Aerodynamic and Thermodynamic Design and Performance of Jet Engines by N.A. Cumpsty
(I think this may be the book /u/IC_Pandemonium was referring to actually. The previous book I have not had a chance to go through but I believe it is supposed to be written very accessibly as well.)

Compressor Aerodynamics by Cumpsty

The Design of High-Efficiency Turbomachinery and Gas Turbines by D.G. Wilson

Hopefully one or a few of these help!

These books follow just about every aspect of the space race, not just NASA, but very good pieces.

Astronautics Book 1: Dawn of the Space Age Bk. 1

Astronautics: To the Moon and Towards the Future Bk. 2

Wow I bought these a long time ago... Shop around for book 2 ^^;

There are several courses that ARO (usually) has, but ME exclusive program doesn't, such as Gas Dynamics, Low/High Speed Aerodynamics, Orbital Mechanics, Aircraft Stability, and Jet Propulsion. I based this statement from the school (CalPoly Pomona) that I went to. YMMV.

Book recommendations:

• Orbital Mechanics
  
• Gas Dynamics & High Speed Aerodynamics
  
• Flight Mechanics
  
• Jet Propulsion
  
• Spacecraft Design
  
• Rocket Propulsion
  
  Aerospace is broad subject, you haven't specified whether you're interested in structures, aerodynamics, flight mechanics, or propulsion. I gave you a broad list of selection to reflect that, although I assume you are more inclined toward Astronautics (Space) part of Aerospace instead of Aeronautics (Air); hence you posted your question in /r/space.

tl;dr: Yes. You gain additional velocity from a spinny Earth by launching east from the equator versus launching from Cape Canaveral, which either means you can use a rocket with less propellant (cheaper) or put more mass in orbit.

Yes. Dig this latitude map. I'm not sure when what we're talking about becomes actual Rocket Science, but we're close.

Check out this link regarding the Delta V (that's delta vee and not delta five, which makes googling for this stuff suck beyond imagination). The idea is that by launching east at the equator you get more of a velocity boost from the rotaty Earth than you do elsewhere. I compared the numbers I linked to in my (Sutton)[http://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Propulsion-Elements-George-Sutton/dp/0470080248/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1303169914&sr=8-1] and they disagreed, so I won't quote them. You can feed the difference in velocity gained launching east from the equator versus Cape Canaveral back into the Tsiolkovsky equation (and you can google that shit all day long) and eventually work out how much more mass you could've put into orbit if you launched from the equator versus Cape Canaveral.

You might also check out Wikipedia's article on Delta Vee and work to gain your own understanding of this, since I am absolutely not a rocket scientist.

> I mean I personally think we should ban (deadly) weapons from going to space at all.

You'd think that would already be the case but the Soviets, and presumably the Russians now, carried traditional firearms into space. The Soviets carried the TP-82, I believe largely claiming it was for self defense/survival when they'd land in the tundra. Salyut-3 had a 23mm cannon (although this is disputed as possibly being a different weapon, but some projectile weapon).

There's a book, Amazing Stories of the Space Age: True Tales of Nazis in Orbit, Soldiers on the Moon, Orphaned Martian Robots, and Other Fascinating Accounts from the Annals of Spaceflight, that I'm fairly certain has a chapter or two on these various weapons (I'm like 90% confident it is where I read about the TP-82).

I think that book talks about the 'sausage gun' which you can read a bit about here as well http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a18136/militarized-space-concepts/

Okay, for sci-fi, you have to get The Culture series in. Put Player of Games face out.

I don't read a lot of space books, but Asteroid Hunter by Carrie Nugent is awesome. I mostly have recommendations for spaceflight and spaceflight history, and a lot of these come from listeners to my podcast, so all credit to them.

• Corona, America's first Satellite Program Amazon
  
• Digital Apollo MIT Books
  
• An Astronaut's Guide to Earth by Chris Hadfield (Amazon)
  
• Capture Dynamics and Chaotic Motions in Celestial Mechanics: With Applications to the Construction of Low Energy Transfers by Edward Belbruno (Amazon)
  
• Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration by Buzz Aldrin (Amazon)
  
• Red Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson (Part 1 on Amazon)
  
• Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War by Michael Neufeld (Amazon)
  
• Space Shuttle by Dennis R Jenkins (Amazon)
  
• The History Of Manned Space Flight by David Baker (Amazon)
  
• Saturn by Lawrie and Godwin (Amazon)
  
• Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by Lovell (Amazon)
  
• Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz (Amazon)
  
• Space by James A Michener (Amazon)
  
• Encounter With Tiber by Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes (Amazon)
  
• Ascent to Orbit: A Scientific Autobiography by Arthur C Clark (Amazon)
  
• Fundamentals of Astrodynamics by Bate and White (Amazon)
  
• Space Cadet by Robert Heinlein (Amazon)

I highly recommend reading "Deep Space Propulsion: A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight". Great comprehensive read, not too technical and quite recent (2010 I believe). The author provides a myriad of various ideas and validations including existing projects and practice questions.

http://www.amazon.com/Deep-Space-Propulsion-Interstellar-Astronomers/dp/1461406064

FullFrontalNoodly guessed that you're trying to calculate a trajectory of a rocket launch. I'm going to assume he's right, but for the record, this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Propulsion-Elements-George-Sutton/dp/0470080248

is a great resource if you want to learn about rocket performance.

I've read that article many times before. I feel like a dick for saying this, but that author is wrong. Flat out wrong. We wouldn't need anything CLOSE to ten railway tankers. This author, for instance, states that the efficiency of nuclear propulsion is 10 times more efficient than the shuttle engines. Not even remotely close. Ion propulsion is already 10 times as efficient as the shuttle engines. Nuclear propulsion is many orders of magnitude higher than that, and antimatter is higher still. This gives a good idea of it (see the logarithmic chart listing the energy in joules/kg). The author of that article says that antimatter is 100 times as efficient as chemical propulsion. That's horribly wrong, and I'm astounded that it got onto NASA's website. I can only assume that this guy was just trying to push for funding for warp drive research. Antimatter provides about 10^10 more joules per kg than chemical propulsion. An acceleration of 1g, for a single year, brings us up to 0.77c, and as relativistic effects are negligible at that fraction of light speed, we would not have to account for increased thrust in order to maintain acceleration. That leisurely acceleration could bring us to Proxima Centauri in about a decade if we simply coasted after the first year of acceleration.

That article is very, very wrong. I can't emphasize this enough. Do not take my word for it, though; I'd recommend this excellent book as a starting point for learning about the challenges and requirements of interstellar flight. They're tough problems, but they are nothing like the bogus figures used in that article.

It's intended to be a textbook for the next generation of space systems engineers. The old books like Sutton mostly cover how to design conventional rockets. I felt like a more comprehensive book was needed.

Establish the properties you know and those you care about finding - Viscosity, thermal conductivity, molecular diffusion coefficient, fuel/oxidiser requirements (i.e. mass conservation) for example.

Here's a few things to think about:

• When analysing the working fluids, you'll care about properties such as temperature, pressure, specific volume, and enthalpy. You might need a pump/turbine to deliver your fuel or oxidiser, and worry about enthalpy throughout the cycle. See thermodynamic cycle of a reaction engine.
  
  
• When sizing your nozzle and throat area you'll probably at some point want to know you characteristic velocity C, which is the (chamber pressure)(throat area)/(mass flowrate). Chamber pressure is very much related to the heat of combustion and it would be nice to model this, either steady state or transient.
  
  
• To a mechanical engineer, the combination of pressure and temperature dictates how you design your chamber (thermal expansion near to joints/component interfaces, principal stress, oxidation, creep properties, are all important). You will be thinking about how to keep the walls of the chamber and nozzle cool - see how the Saturn V rocket engines (F-1 engines) routed their fuel around the nozzle, which pre-heats the fuel, and cools the nozzle so that it can survive the high temperature exhaust. Some engines might need thermal barrier coatings or ablative coatings. It would be interesting to analyse whether any of this extra thermal protection is necessary.
  
  I've just added a Reference Library with a few books on rocket engines.
  
  

• How to Design, Build, and Test Small Liquid-Fuel Rocket Engines (alternate link) - enthusiast primer on liquid-fuel rocket engine design, containing some basic math.
  
  
• Design of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines (NASA SP-125) - NASA design document originally written in 1967 detailing nearly every design consideration for large payload liquid-fuel rocket engines, containing empirically derived equations and advanced math.
  
  
• Rocket Propulsion Elements (George Sutton) - rocket design text which includes sections on hybrid rocket design, containing empirically derived equations and advanced math.
  
  

In that case, the general bible for rocketry is Rocket Propulsion Elements, and it's the best place to start working these things out. https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Propulsion-Elements-George-Sutton/dp/0470080248

> one thing I always found amusing was that "rocket science" was orders of magnitude simpler to calculate than a simple two link piston turning a flywheel.

Are you certain you're not confusing rocket science with ballistics space dynamics?

> No, before the protomolecule they are scooting around the solar system at 1g (fucking fast) with nothing but a fusion drive.

• 1. To be fair, Corey never specifies exactly how the fusion drive works, except that it uses pellets. That last detail suggests inertial confinement fusion.
     
     That said, he does mention powerfully damaging (from an charged particle radiation perspective) engine exhaust from said engines in Caliban's War.
     
     
• 2. Per Deep Space Propulsion: A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight, (some) fusion drives using "currently extrapolated" (note my quotes) have delta-V (maximum velocity change) budgets of ~26 000 km/s.
     
     Assuming any such spacecraft would also have to brake using its onboard engines and fuel, its max velocity would be 26 000/2 = 13 000 km/s. A simple v = u + at calculation reveals that it take 369 hours, or 2.19 weeks, to reach that velocity at 1 g.
     
     Ergo, it's not implausible to spend nearly a month and a half at 1 g acceleration on a fusion drive vessel :)
     
     
• 3. Even if the drive itself were reactionless, that's not necessarily unrealistic. Per Discover Magazine it's quite possible due to quantum effects that can be taken advantage of.
     
     I think a common mistake many hard sci-fi fans make is assuming that rocketry will never advance beyond Newtonian propulsion when in fact we take advantage of non-Newtonian behavior in our daily life when we use computers and most electronics. The only reason we haven't seen similar advances in propulsion is the political reasons behind the space race went away, and with it much of the funding and fanatical drive (no pun intended) for intensive space exploration. But that's another discussion :)

I can surely suggest you some books which cover a vast field of rocket science.

• Rocket Propulsion Elements by George P. Sutton, Oscar Biblarz
  
• Fundamentals of Astrodynamics by Roger R. Bate, Donald D. Mueller, Jerry E. White
  
• International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems by S. Isakowitz, J. Hopkins, J. Hopkins Jr
  
• Elements of Propulsion: Gas Turbines and Rockets by J. Mattingly, H. von Ohain
  
  These are the same books which Elon musk used for self learning Rocket science.
  
  source: http://qr.ae/TUGfdA

I hope you have a background in basic calculus and physics, at the very least.

Obtain this book and read it cover to cover before you even think about it. It's expensive but should be available at an engineering library.
https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Propulsion-Elements-George-Sutton/dp/0470080248

If you're okay with PDF, here you go:
http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/~ernesto/S2013/EP/MaterialsforStudents/Lee/Sutton-Biblarz-Rocket_Propulsion_Elements.pdf

For information about this type of engine and other studies regarding theoretical propulsion, check out Frontiers of Propulsion Science. It's a collection of studies and conclusions of the NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics (BPP) Project. Very interesting and mind blowing stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/Frontiers-Propulsion-Progress-Astronautics-Aeronautics/dp/1563479567/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406995617&sr=8-1&keywords=frontier+in+propulsion

There are many reasons:

• Hydrogen is nasty to work with. It's colder than lots of other cryogenic propellants. Its vapor pressure varies so rapidly with temperature that either you perfectly thermally isolate it from its surroundings or the liquid will boil and pressurize the Ullage volume. Either you vent off the excess gaseous hydrogen through a check valve, or you make your tanks stronger(and heavy as fuck). Venting is actually already done with other cryogenic propellants as well, but hydrogen requires doing so very quickly depending on how good your tanks are.
  
  
  
• The tanks are heavier. Not only because they have to contain more volume, but because they have multiple layers. Vacuum insulation requires you to cover the surface area(plus some change) twice. (Aside: Longer term storage like you might find on the surface of the planet would also likely have a liquid nitrogen or helium layer as well to collect the radiative heat from transferring into the main hydrogen tank. Think: atmosphere/metal/vacuum/nitrogen/vacuum/hydrogen main tank.)
  
  
  
• Additional turbopumps/inducers required to keep hydrogen from cavitating, increasing the inert mass even further. To keep the turbopump from cavitating, its pressure has to be raised somewhat gradually. If the pumps cavitate not only will performance drop, but the pump will begin to vibrate and possibly induce some unwanted structural dynamics that may break something during launch.
  
  
  
• And of course, as others have mentioned, hydrogen has a tendency to diffuse into stuff. This makes it brittle and more susceptible to fracture.
  
  
  
  tl;dr: Working with liquid hydrogen is actually pretty awful. (We'd use kerosene if we could find it on Mars, but CH4 is manufacturable in situ.)
  
  
  Source: I had to double check lots of this stuff with my copy of Sutton and Biblarz. The inert gas layer thing for the tanks is actually me paraphrasing one of my former professors though; it's not in the book from what I can tell.

Are you interested in the engineering/physics resource or a historical one? There was a Quora (at least I think it was Quora) post about the books Elon used to tech himself rocket science. This is one of the books from that list:

Aerothermodynamics of Gas Turbine and Rocket Propulsion (AIAA Education Series) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0930403347/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_ym1vub1A4352Q

i think thats actually not possible. I believe thats because you need to expand the flow to derive thrust and making the "bell" long enough to align the (now atmospheric pressure) flow exactly with the slipstream is impractical (it weighs too much). It might be possible if you were building a test article (ie. a rocket that didnt actually go anywhere, so it had no thrust/weight requirement). In any other configuration, whatever bell size you choose will be suboptimal in some regime. (ie. underexpanded at sea level, or overexpanded at altitude, etc.)
(there are variable geometry nozzles, and in fact thats what the aerospike is supposedly "better" at), but doing that in metal is quite expensive in weight.

I remember working this out for myself while reading Sutton about 10 years ago, but i cant remember why now.

Another fun little thought exercise is the "ice rocket" (the one that actually produces ice in the exhaust becuase of the expansion). This apparently can actually occur.

To “deeply” understand electric propulsion, you may have to start with thermodynamics and electrodynamics. Then you can move on to study integrated propulsion books like:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1563472414/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_c_api_i_oJmRCbAWY2J4E


https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Propulsion-Elements-George-Sutton/dp/1118753658/ref=nodl_

I mean, if you really want to learn....

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118753658/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_itIdzb1QYKYRJ

I mean Dragon with a Second stage is on the cover of Rocket Propulsion Elements in the eighth edition
and a F9 Dance Floor on the ninth

that's a kind of big one already

Read "Rocket Propulsion Elements" before you even think about doing anything with liquid fuel engines.

https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Propulsion-Elements-George-Sutton/dp/1118753658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493308650&sr=8-1&keywords=rocket+propulsion+elements

Plus RPE's 8th and 9th editions.

Rocket Propulsion Elements

How would you compare Farokhi to Mattingly's Elements of Propulsion: Gas Turbines and Rockets when it comes to turbines?

> Rocket Propulsion Elements
https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Propulsion-Elements-George-Sutton/dp/0470080248

This book?

No cause this photo is on the front of the textbook haha

Rocket flight will never be as reliable and low-risk as airline flying under current industry materials and processes, however once new processes or materials are developed I think it is possible to see a reduction in the risk, cost, and unreliability to the point where it is closer to airline standards

Maybe not in the redesign but the old sidebar got the bibles:

• Rocket Propulsion Elements for general rocket engines (more for commercial and launch vehicles)
  
• Modern High Power Rocketry for more DIY and hobby level stuff.
  
• Space Propulsion Analysis and Design for more general aspects
  
  Another great ressource is Nakka Rocketry webiste (http://www.nakka-rocketry.net/) for actual data.
  
  Whatever you do please do not blindly follow popular youtube videos. At best they document decade old techniques that everyone has abandoned because they are unreliable, at worst plain dangerous.

Aw shoot... that's one of the ones I don't have a good book on and am actually on the look-out for. I had Fundamentals of Jet Propulsion in college, but I found it confusing and non sequitur.