The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) was the first dission to orbit and eventually land on an asteroid. A phenomenal success, the mission returned with hundreds of thousands of images, spectra, and other measurements about the large near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros. Some of the scientists and engineers who made NEAR such a success describe the mission here in their own words, from the initial concept studies, through the development phase, launch, cruise operations, the flyby of asteroid Mathilde, the near-catastrophic main engine failure in 1998, the heroic rescue and recovery of the spacecraft, the amazing year-long up-close look at one of Earth's most primitive celestial neighbors, and, finally, the daring attempt to land the spacecraft on Eros at the end of the mission. The book is illustrated throughout with images from the mission and explanatory diagrams. Jim Bell is an Assistant Professor in the Cornell University Astronomy Department whose research focuses on the geology, chemistry, and mineralogy of planets, asteroids, and comets using data obtained from telescopes and spacecraft missions. He is a member of a number of space science teams, including the NASA Mars Pathfinder and NEAR. Author of some 70 first and co-authored journal publications, he is a frequent contributor to popular astronomy magazines and radio shows. The International Astronomical Union recently awarded him the honor of having asteroid 8146 Jimbell named after him. Jacqueline Mitton is the Press Officer and a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, a member of the International Astronomical Union, and a Member of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. She is the author or co-author of 16 astronomy books; her most recent being The Cambridge Dictionary of Astronomy (2001).

Are we alone in the Universe? What is our place in it? How did we get here? We have long searched for the answers to questions such as these, and scientists are beginning to find some of the answers. In this beautifully illustrated book, Daniel Altschuler provides the reader with the elements to understand the questions and their answers as far as we know them. He explores subjects from physics and astronomy, to geology and paleontology. Along the way he touches on topics such as the search for life on other worlds and the hazards of asteroid impacts. Written in an engaging and readable style, readers will be intrigued by the surprising connections among the stars, our planet, and life itself. Daniel Altschuler is Director of the Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, the site of the world's largest single-dish radio telescope.

Ambassadors from Earth reminds us that our first mad scrambles to reach orbit, the moon, and the planets were littered with enough histrionics and cliff-hanging turmoil to rival the most far-out sci-fi film. But it all really happened! Drawing on original interviews with key players and bolstered by previously unpublished photographs, journal excerpts, and primary source documents, Jay Gallentine delivers a quirky and unforgettable look at the lives and legacy of the people who conceived, built, and guided our first unmanned spacecraft and planetary probes. From the Sputnik and Explorer satellites of the late 1950s, to the thrilling Voyager "Grand Tour" of the '70s and '80s, they yielded some of the most celebrated successes and spectacular failures of the space age. Confessed one participant, "We were making it up as we went along." Gallentine fearlessly clambers to the bottom of a surprisingly bitter controversy over who first developed the technique of using gravity to steer a spacecraft. Also of special note are his candid discussions with James Van Allen, the discoverer of the rings of planetary radiation that now bear his name.

The very first work of its kind, Celebrating the Universe: The Science & Spirituality of Stargazing is a guide to the wonders of the heavens visible to the unaided eye and in binoculars, with a focus on the 'soul' of the night sky! This travel guide to the stars is written from a metaphysical and spiritual perspective in additional to a scientific one. The unique unifying theme throughout is the personal benefits of communing with celestial wonders firsthand - the joy and heady excitement of participating in the great cosmic drama unfolding nightly overhead. This involves such little-known aspects of stargazing as therapeutic relaxation, celestial meditation, expansion of consciousness, spiritual contact and astral travel. Everything the budding stargazer and celestial pilgrim needs for this cosmic journey is contained within this volume, from how to observe the sky... to what to see - and why! Covered are the Sun, Moon and all of the planets; comets, asteroids, meteors and artificial satellites; variable and exploding stars, colourful double and multiple stars, and glittering star clusters; and eerie glowing nebulae, our majestic Milky Way, and even the remote galaxies. Astronomer and author James Mullaney explores profound concepts such as our heritage as children of the stars (we are made of stardust!) and our cosmic destiny (as citizens of the universe!) - all from an aesthetic viewpoint.

In a critical Cold War moment, Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency suddenly changed when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world's first satellite. What Ike called "a small ball" became a source of Russian pride and propaganda, and it wounded him politically, as critics charged that he responded sluggishly to the challenge of space exploration. Yet Eisenhower refused to panic after Sputnik and he did more than just stay calm. He helped to guide the United States into the Space Age, even though Americans have given greater credit to John F. Kennedy for that achievement.

In Eisenhower's Sputnik Moment, Yanek Mieczkowski examines the early history of America's space program, reassessing Eisenhower s leadership. He details how Eisenhower approved breakthrough satellites, supported a new civilian space agency, signed a landmark science education law, and fostered improved relations with scientists. These feats made Eisenhower s post-Sputnik years not the flop that critics alleged but a time of remarkable progress, even as he endured the setbacks of recession, medical illness, and a humiliating first U.S. attempt to launch a satellite. Eisenhower s principled stands enabled him to resist intense pressure to boost federal spending, and he instead pursued his priorities a balanced budget, prosperous economy, and sturdy national defense. Yet Sputnik also altered the world s power dynamics, sweeping Eisenhower in directions that were new, even alien, to him, and he misjudged the importance of space in the Cold War s "prestige race." By contrast, Kennedy capitalized on the issue in the 1960 election, and after taking office he urged a manned mission to the moon, leaving Eisenhower to grumble over the young president s aggressive approach.

Offering a fast-paced account of this Cold War episode, Mieczkowski demonstrates that Eisenhower built an impressive record in space and on earth, all the while offering warnings about America s stature and strengths that still hold true today."

Recent discoveries of planet-like objects circling other sun-like stars have stirred enormous interest in what other planets may exist in the universe, and whether they could support intelligent life. This book takes us into the midst of this search for extrasolar planets. Unlike other books, it focuses on the people behind the searches -- many known personally by the author -- and the extraordinary technology that is currently on the drawing boards. The author is an experienced, award-winning science journalist who was previously technology correspondent for the Financial Times of London. He has written on many topics in astronomy and astrobiology in over 35 different newspapers and magazines worldwide.

First Snow White encounters one of the Little People, then one of the Even Smaller People, and finally one of the Truly Infinitesimal People. And no matter how diligently she searches, the only dwarves she can find are collapsed stars! Clearly, she's not at home in her well-known Brothers Grimm fairy tale, but instead in a strange new landscape that features quantum behavior, the wavelike properties of particles, and the Uncertainty Principle. She (and we) must have entered, in short, one of the worlds created by Robert Gilmore, physicist and fabulist.

Supernovae sind spektakul re Explosionen am Ende eines Sternlebens, die sich durch das pl tzliche Aufleuchten eines ansonsten unauff lligen Sterns am Himmel zeigen und denen viele beobachtende Hobbyastronomen nachjagen. Thomas Janka, Supernovaforscher am Max-Planck-Institut f r Astrophysik, f hrt seinen Lesern anschaulich die extremen Bedingungen vor Augen, die nur noch vom Urknall bertroffen werden und viele spannende R tsel der Kosmologen l sen helfen.

Nicolaus Copernicus gave the world perhaps the most important scientific insight of the modern age, the theory that the earth and the other planets revolve around the sun. He was also the first to proclaim that the earth rotates on its axis once every twenty-four hours. His theory was truly radical: during his lifetime nearly everyone believed that a perfectly still earth rested in the middle of the cosmos, where all the heavenly bodies revolved around it.

One of the transcendent geniuses of the early Renaissance, Copernicus was also a flawed and conflicted person. A cleric who lived during the tumultuous years of the early Reformation, he may have been sympathetic to the teachings of the Lutherans. Although he had taken a vow of celibacy, he kept at least one mistress. Supremely confident intellectually, he hesitated to disseminate his work among other scholars. It fact, he kept his astronomical work a secret, revealing it to only a few intimates, and the manuscript containing his revolutionary theory, which he refined for at least twenty years, remained "hidden among my things."

It is unlikely that Copernicus' masterwork would ever have been published if not for a young mathematics professor named Georg Joachim Rheticus. He had heard of Copernicus' ideas, and with his imagination on fire he journeyed hundreds of miles to a land where, as a Lutheran, he was forbidden to travel. Rheticus' meeting with Copernicus in a small cathedral town in northern Poland proved to be one of the most important encounters in history.

"Copernicus' Secret" recreates the life and world of the scientific genius whose work revolutionized astronomy and altered our understanding of our place in the world. It tells the surprising, little-known story behind the dawn of the scientific age.

In 1961 President John F. Kennedy challenged the United States to land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth before the end of the decade. It seemed like an impossible mission and one that the Russians--who had launched the first satellite and put the first man into Earth orbit--would surely achieve before the Americans. However, the ingenuity, passion, and sacrifice of thousands of ordinary people from all walks of life enabled the space program to meet this extraordinary goal. This is the story of fourteen of those men and women who worked behind the scenes, without fanfare or recognition, to make the Apollo missions successful.

For as long as mankind has possessed a sense of wonder, astronomy has been practised in one form or another. It can be thought of as having graduated to the status of a true science at the point in history when it became forever separated from astrology. Clearly they were not of the same mould; astronomy was hard to do; astrology was merely hard to swallow. The next significant change came in the early 20th century. Men and women of science felt it was no longer sufficient to simply catalogue the visual characteristics of the stars and other heavenly bodies; the desire to understand their physical makeup, behaviour and creation gave us the study of astrophysics. As the name suggests, this is the physics of astronomical bodies and the space they inhabit. During the second half of the 20th century interest turned also to the other eight planets of our solar system, spawning several new disciplines relating to Planetology, the formation of the solar system, and the possibility of past or present extraterrestrial life. Every decade of the last century brought ever more numerous and fascinating discoveries. It was not until 1930 that Pluto, the ninth planet, was discovered.;Only as late as 1978 was it discovered that Pluto possessed a moon. And now, in late 2005, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has given astronomers evidence that Pluto may have not one, but three moons. In recent decades much interest has also been given to the far reaches of the universe -- far stars; other galaxies, some old, some still forming; and even the earliest detectable galaxies of the universe, at the very limits of our ability to probe. Each field of space study requires its own special tools and its own expertise. The many programs that come loosely under the headings of astronomy and space exploration are as varied and rewarding as the fascinating discoveries that they have made. To the uninformed, the exploration of deep space may seem esoteric and unexciting, but in truth the wonder and the beauty of deep space outshine almost anything that Earth and man can offer. The time when people can go and explore deep space in person is still well into the future. Until then, we shall continue to do as we have done for the past 40 years, sending unmanned spacecraft and satellites as our proxies and ambassadors to the universe.;This book examines deep space exploration missions, past, present and future, and their results.

National Aeronautics & Space Administration (Nasa) Background, Issues, Bibliography

This collection of oral histories of the Saturn/Apollo program recounts the unique adventure of the lunar landing programme as witnessed by some of the political leaders, engineers, scientists and astronauts who made it such a success. It includes recollections from James Webb, the NASA administrator whose political connections to Washington extended back to the New Deal of the 1930s; rocket pioneer and architect of the Saturn V rocket Wernher von Braun; the resolute Robert Gilruth, director of the Houston centre; the engineering iconoclast Maxime Faget, whose designs of spacecraft made flights to the moon possible; and astronauts such as Harrison Schmitt and Charles Duke.

Developed by one of the foremost designers of astonomical maps, The Cambridge Star Atlas offers an unusual degree of breadth and detail for amateur and experienced astronomers. Northern and southern latitudes are included in a series of monthly sky charts and an atlas of the whole sky. Each of the 20 overlapping full color charts shows stars down to magnitude 6.5, together with about 900 nonstellar objects, such as clusters and galaxies, which can be seen with binoculars or a small telescope. This new edition features 52 color maps, improved versions of all the charts, and a thorough revision of the text and star data based on the latest information. In addition, there is a comprehensive double page map of the Moon's surface, which shows craters and other named features. Clear, authoritative, and easy-to-use, The Cambridge Star Atlas is an ideal reference for sky watchers everywhere, throughout the year. Wil Tirion began his first star atlas as a hobby, mapping the whole sky on five maps. It was published in the Encyclopedia of Astronomy and soon after was released as a separate set of maps by the British Astronomical Association. In 1983, Tirion began working as a full-time uranographer, or sky cartographer. Since then, he has contributed to many books and magazines on astronomy. He lives in the Netherlands.

Gateway to the Moon presents the definitive history of the origins, design, and construction of the lunar launch facilities at Kennedy Space Center, the terrestrial site of one of the greatest national adventures of the 20th century, humanity's first trip to the moon. It includes archival illustrations and diagrams of locations, personnel, and equipment, from aerial views of sandy, undeveloped Cape Canaveral to some of the first photos of the mobile launchers and crawler-transporters.

Filled with the sense of wonder and pride that the earliest U.S. space achievements inspired, the book focuses on launch complexes 39A and 39B, the gigantic assemblies from which the Apollo-Saturn vehicles departed for trips into space, and on the massive eight-acre Vertical Assembly Building (renamed the Vehicle Assembly Building) and the attached Launch Control Center -- some of the most awesome buildings ever constructed. It also analyzes the technological and governmental interactions necessary to ensure success of the launches.

Originally part of Moonport, a 1978 volume in the NASA History Series, the book is based on extensive interviews with wit participants in the space program and wide access to official documents, letters, and memoranda; in addition, the authors air criticisms directed at the Kennedy Space Center team and treat in detail mistakes in launch operations and conflicts within the program. Written for a general-interest audience, with jargon and acronyms translated into everyday language, the book offers a faithful account of technology in service to humanity.

Moon Launch! recreates the exciting story of the astronauts and engineers, scientists and technicians, politicians and public citizens who expanded the world's understanding of humanity's potential, the people responsible for the Project Apollo flights to the moon. Through their teamwork at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral became the spaceport for the nation and, in the minds of many, the gateway to the universe.

A companion to Gateway to the Moon and also part of the 1978 NASA History Series Moonport volume, this illustrated book describes the seven missions to the moon launched between 1969 and 1972. With the exception of the abortive Apollo 13 flight, all landed successfully. As the story progresses, astronauts explore the moon's surface in the lunar rover (complete with bucket seats and power steering), set up experiments, and bring back hundreds of pounds of lunar geological samples. The book concludes with a description of the last and most spectacular liftoff, Apollo 17, launched on a dark December night before a crowd of nearly 500,000 visitors.

This popular guide to cosmic debris introduces the fascinating world of meteorites, astroids, comets, and impact craters. With more than 50 new photographs and updated illustrations, new and expanded appendixes, and some fun cosmic humor, "Rocks from Space, 2nd Edition" journeys into the last frontier for close-up looks at the latest astronomical discoveries.

Professor Stephen Hawking is generally considered to have been one of the world's greatest thinkers. Here, his phenomenal bestseller A Brief History of Time is illustrated to bring his theories to life in a clear, captivating and visually engaging way. 'This book marries a child's wonder to a genius's intellect. We journey into Hawking's universe, while marvelling at his mind' - The Sunday Times 'Stephen Hawking can explain the complexities of cosmological physics with an engaging combination of clarity and wit...' - Observer 'Exceptional writing explaining the mysteries and beauty of our universe. The book is very fascinating and highly enjoyable. Highly recommended' - ***** Reader review 'This book is mind blowing' - ***** Reader review 'A masterpiece' - ***** Reader review ******************************************************************************************** Was there a beginning of time? Could time run backwards? Is the universe infinite or does it have boundaries? These are just some of the questions considered in the internationally acclaimed masterpiece by the world-renowned physicist Professor Stephen Hawking. It begins by reviewing the great theories of the cosmos from Newton to Einstein, before delving into the secrets which still lie at the heart of space and time, from the Big Bang to black holes, via spiral galaxies and strong theory. To this day A Brief History of Time remains a staple of the scientific canon, and its succinct and clear language continues to introduce millions to the universe and its wonders. In this edition, Professor Hawking explains his complex theories through a fresh visual dimension. Over 150 stunning colour illustrations have been specially commissioned for this purpose to help the reader understand what have become popular mythic images of our century, but which nonetheless remain difficult, abstract ideas to grasp. This stunning gift edition also includes a new appendix with updates to the text and tributes to Stephen Hawking.

This wry and highly readable investigation of the role of space travel in popular imagination looks at the way NASA has openly borrowed from the TV show Star Trek to reinforce its public standing. It also celebrates the work of a group of the show's fans who rewrite its storylines in porno-romance fanzines. Constance Penley advocates that scientific experimentation be accompanied by social and sexual experimentation, and devoted to exploring inner as well as outer space.

The Cambridge Eclipse Photography Guide describes everything you need to know to observe and photograph the forthcoming solar and lunar eclipses in the 1990s. It gives maps and descriptions of where and how to view forthcoming eclipses, with particular attention to two popularly-awaited solar eclipses: an annular eclipse (where a ring of sunlight is visible around the moon) that will cross the United States in 1994, and a total eclipse that will pass over Europe in 1999. The authors also describe past eclipse expeditions, capturing the excitement of the observers.

Amid a century devastated by war, space exploration was perhaps mankind's greatest achievement of the twentieth century. Yet remarkably, in a world where most technology progresses constantly, space exploration appears to have gone backwards. Man has not returned to the moon since 1972; the space shuttle programme has finished and not been replaced; much-vaunted promises of space tourism have not become realistic. In this remarkable book, David Ashford looks back at the story of space exploration, identifying the factors that were a driving force behind the eye-catching programmes of the cold war, and showing how now new driving forces are needed. Using his own extensive experience as a practitioner and researcher of space exploration, Ashford then outlines a new, realistic roadmap for achieving the new space age soon and at an affordable cost. This accessible and readable book will appeal both to students and general readers, giving a fascinating introduction to space exploration - and what matters most about it.

There is a crisis in modern science that few theorists are willing to confront. In The Virtue of Heresy: Confessions of a Dissident Astronomer, renowned physicist and astronomer Hilton Ratcliffe, founding member of the Alternative Cosmology Group and co-discoverer of the CNO nuclear fusion cycle on the Sun’s surface, delivers to science aficionados his straightforward and highly compelling explanation of, and challenge to, many widely-held scientific beliefs that fall apart under scrutiny.

Ratcliffe not only points out the fallacy of commonly held beliefs often promoted by the global scientific community, but, through a close (and sometimes humorous) examination of theoretical physics, presents a convincing argument for alternative theory. The heresy of which he writes—that is, our unwillingness to accept at face value all that is spooned to us by ‘the experts’—is presented not as a liability, but as a virtue essential to the progress of scientific thought.