KINEMATICS is a branch of dynamics that studies aspects of motion apart from considerations of masses and forces. Essentially, Kinematics is a collection of vector/matrix methods to describe positions, velocities and accelerations of particles and rigid bodies, as viewed from various reference frames. The sub-eld of Particle Kinematics considers only the motion of particles. This in itself can be quite challenging at times. As an example, consider a person driving a car on the highway. The road itself is xed to a constantly rotating Earth which in turn is orbiting the sun. What is your velocity and acceleration relative to a Sun-xed coordinate system? This chapter will help answer these and many related questions.

This single source provides a comprehensive treatment of dynamics of aerospace systems starting with the basic fundamentals. Topics range from basic kinematics and dynamics to more advanced celestial mechanics. It guides you through the various derivations and proofs, but avoids "cookbook" formulas. Instead, the reader is made to understand the underlying principle of the involved equations and shown how to apply them to various dynamical systems. The book is divided into two parts. Part I covers analytical treatment of topics such as basic dynamic principles up to advanced energy concept. Special attention is paid to the use of rotating reference frames that often occur in aerospace systems. Part II covers basic celestial mechanics treating the 2-body problem, restricted 3-body problem, gravity field modelling, perturbation methods, spacecraft formation flying, and orbit transfers.