Applications of celestial mechanics in natural objects and spacecrafts

Abstract

Studies related to Celestial Mechanics started long ago, and it is one of the oldest fields in Astronomy. It started to try to explain the motions of the stars in the sky, in particular the irregular motion of some of those of then, which were really the planets of the Solar System. In the 20th century, with the arrival of the Space Age, many applications related to the motion of artificial spacecrafts appeared. This new field was called Astrodynamics, to designate the use of Celestial Mechanics in man-made objects. Several aspects, like orbit determination, maneuvers to change the orbit of the spacecraft, etc., are covered by this topic. The present Focus Issue in Celestial Mechanics publishes a list of papers in topics related to applications in Celestial Mechanics to both situations: natural and artificial satellites.