An essential reference source on Mars exploration from space, blending scientific and historical data with detailed and unique illustrations. This two-volume set charts the chronological history of Mars exploration through missions from the dawn of the Space Age to the end of the Curiosity mission in 2014. It includes information on missions that were planned and never flew, as well as unsuccessful missions. This atlas is accessible to space enthusiasts, but the bibliography and meticulous detail make it a particularly valuable reference for academic researchers and students working in planetary science and planetary mapping, and in the history of space exploration.

Mantle Convection in the Earth and Planets is a comprehensive synthesis of all aspects of mantle convection within the Earth, the terrestrial planets, the Moon, and the Galilean satellites of Jupiter. The authors include up-to-date discussions of the latest research developments that have revolutionized our understanding of the Earth and the planets. The book features a comprehensive index, an extensive reference list, numerous illustrations (many in color) and major questions that focus the discussion and suggest avenues of future research. It is suitable as a text for graduate courses in geophysics and planetary physics, and as a supplementary reference for use at the undergraduate level. It is also an invaluable review for researchers in the broad fields of the Earth and planetary sciences.

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.

The age-old question of how our home planet and its satellite originated has in recent times undergone a minor revolution. The emergence of the "giant impact theory" as the most successful model for the origin of the Moon has been difficult to reconcile with some aspects of the Earth, and the development of an integrated model for the origin of the Earth-Moon system has been difficult for this reason. However, recent technical advances in experimental and isotopic work, together with intensified interest in the modeling of planetary dynamics, have produced a wealth of new results requiring a rethinking of models for the origin of the Earth and Moon. This book is intended to serve as a resource for those scientists working closely in this field, while at the same time it provides enough balance and depth to offer an introduction for students or technically minded general readers. Its thirty chapters address isotopic and chemical constraints on accretion, the dynamics of terrestrial planet formation, the impact-triggered formation of the Earth-Moon system, differentiation of the Earth and Moon, the origin of terrestrial volatiles, and conditions on the young Earth and Moon. Covering such subjects as the history and origin of the Moon's orbit, water on the Earth, and the implications of Earth-Moon interactions for terrestrial climate and life, the book constitutes a state-of-the-art overview of the most recent investigations in the field. Although many advances have been made in our ability to evaluate competing models of the formation of the Earth-Moon system, there are still many gaps in our understanding. This book makes great strides toward closing those gaps by highlighting the extensive progress that has been made and pointing toward future research.

CD-ROM and Book. The Red Planet has been a beacon to every race of mankind since the dawn of history. Today Mars stands as a symbol of the high frontier the next logical step in our exploration of the universe around us. In 1964 the United States of America launched Mariner 4 towards Mars in the hope that a handful of pictures returned by the spacecraft might answer some age-old questions. Was there an ancient Martian civilisation? Would there be any signs of life? So began the first step in a close examination of our neighbouring planet. Between Mariner 4 and Mars Global Surveyor in 1988 the United States has sent a fleet of robots to Mars with wildly varying degrees of success. Thanks to these versatile probes we now know almost as much about Mars on a global scale as we do about our own Earth. In this book the triumphs and tribulations of the American Mars programme is gathered together in one place. Press Kits and Mission Reports from every Mars mission are collected together for the first time. Reading these documents presented here in chronological order gives a fascinating insight into how our understanding of the Red Planet has grown over the past four decades.;These robot voyages are the advance guard, scouting out the path for the day when men will launch a manned mission to Mars.

Comet and Asteroid Impact Hazards explores the anticipated consequences of comet and asteroid impact. It presents the first computer simulations of the hazards of comet and asteroid bombardment of a populated Earth. Previous estimates of fatality and damage rates on the 100 to 10,000 year time scale are shown to be too low because they neglect rare, highly lethal outriders of the populations of bombarding objects, those with exceptional strength, unusually low entry velocity, and near-horizontal entry angles. This is the first realistic assessment of both the mean casualty rate and the expected statistical fluctuations in that rate. A breakdown of fatality and damage rates by impactor energy and compositional class suggests lessons for both asteroid search strategies and interdiction techniques.
This book is written so that anyone with college level experience in the physical sciences can understand it. It includes a disk that allows the reader to simulate impact catastrophes. It serves as a useful resource in various physical sciences courses such as astronomy, planetary science, and environmental science.

* Quantatively rigorous treatment of the state of impact hazard prediction, including stuctural blast damage, firestorm ignition, tsunami generation
* Realistic treatment of the impact on population, composition, and orbits
* Attention to economic and public policy issues of warning, interdiction, and asteroid and comet search strategies
* Comparison of simulation results to historical records
* Detailed and realistic Monte Carlo simulation software included

CD-ROM and Book. When the crew of Apollo 11 returned to earth in July 1969 they brought with them a wealth of new information about the moon. Now astronauts Charles (Pete) Conrad, Alan Bean and Richard Gordon would return to the moon and build on that knowledge. The real test for the crew of Apollo 12 was not to see if they could get to the moon, but to see if they could get to an exact place on the moon. Their target was in an area known as the Ocean of Storms. On 14 November 1969 the crew of Apollo 12 blasted off to their place in history. Not only would Conrad and Bean become the third and fourth men to walk on the moon but they would land the lunar module Intrepid within 600 feet of their designated target. Waiting for them was the unmanned space probe Surveyor 3 which had soft-landed in April 1967. The flight of Apollo 12, which began almost catastrophically when the huge Saturn V was struck by lightning just moments after lift off, went on to yield an enormous amount of valuable data collected during over seven and a half hours on the lunar surface. On their return home the crew of Apollo 12 became the first humans to witness an eclipse of the Sun by the Earth.

This work is an account of one of the most thrilling topics in science - the search for life on Mars - and how it may ultimately lead us to the origins of life in the universe. Hidden beneath the sterile surface of Earth's neighbouring planet may be the keys to unlocking the origins of life in the universe. An expert on extreme-life environments, Malcolm Walter argues that the best place to find evidence of life on Mars is in the rocks and subsurface water of the Red Planet - out of reach of telescopes and space probes. In this book, Walter unveils his dramatic plan - already adopted by NASA - for finding these elusive traces of life.

Until very recently, all we really knew about Venus, our nearest planetary neighbour, was that it was roughly the same size and mass as the earth and was surrounded by a thick atmosphere. Then, in 1989, American scientists launched Magellan,the spacecraft that would revolutionize our vision of this mysterious planet. Venus Revealed is the first book to explain the breathtaking results of this mission, which unveiled a Venusian world of active volcanoes, shining mountains, and river valleys carved by torrents of flowing lava. At one time, Venus may have even had a wet, temperate climate, much like Earth's. What happened to turn it into a hostile, burning acid world? The answer could very well help us solve some of our most pressing environmental problems,from global warming to acid rain. In Venus Revealed, David Grinspoon eloquently argues that studying our exotic twin will inevitable teach us more about ourselves.

Rain of Iron and Ice shows us the unmistakable evidence--from spaceprobe flybys of the planets to the scars on our own Earth--of cataclysmic comet and asteroid impacts. By comparing what we know about the earth's geology and paleontology with the ages of the other planets and moons in our solar system, Lewis makes the strongest case yet for sudden, dramatic extinctions and assesses the risks to planet Earth.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2021 FINALIST FOR THE PEN/E.O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF 2020 To be an astronomer is to journey to some of the most inaccessible parts of the globe, braving mountain passes, sub-zero temperatures, and hostile flora and fauna. Not to mention the stress of handling equipment worth millions. It is a life of unique delights and absurdities ... and one that may be drawing to a close. Since Galileo first pointed his telescope at the heavens, astronomy has stood as a fount of human creativity and discovery, but soon it will be the robots gazing at the sky while we are left to sift through the data. In The Last Stargazers, Emily Levesque reveals the hidden world of the professional astronomer. She celebrates an era of ingenuity and curiosity, and asks us to think twice before we cast aside our sense of wonder at the universe.

From deep ocean trenches and the geographical poles to outer space, organisms can be found living in remarkably extreme conditions. This book provides a captivating account of these systems and their extraordinary inhabitants, 'extremophiles'. A diverse, multidisciplinary group of experts discuss responses and adaptations to change; biodiversity, bioenergetic processes, and biotic and abiotic interactions; polar environments; and life and habitability, including searching for biosignatures in the extraterrestrial environment. The editors emphasize that understanding these systems is important for increasing our knowledge and utilizing their potential, but this remains an understudied area. Given the threat to these environments and their biota caused by climate change and human impact, this timely book also addresses the urgency to document these systems. It will help graduate students and researchers in conservation, marine biology, evolutionary biology, environmental change and astrobiology better understand how life exists in these environments and their susceptibility or resilience to change.

Are we alone in the universe, or are there other life forms 'out there'? This is one of the most scientifically and philosophically important questions that humanity can ask. Now, in the early 2020s, we are tantalizingly close to an answer. As this book shows, the answer will almost certainly be that life forms are to be found across the Milky Way and beyond. They will be thinly spread, to be sure. Yet the number of inhabited planets probably runs into the trillions. Some are close enough for us to detect evidence of life by analysing their atmospheres. This evidence may be found within a couple of decades. Its arrival will be momentous. But even before it arrives we can anticipate what life elsewhere will be like by examining the ecology and evolution of life on Earth. This book considers the current state of play in relation to these titanic issues.

In this book, Velikovsky s ideas are seriously discussed and criticized by three astronomers, a sociologist, and an expert on ancient astronomical records. The result is a full-scale critique of Velikovsky s work from several perspectives. Lucid and informative, the book not only shows the deficiencies of Velikovsky s views, but also makes clear why these views have attracted such a strong public following."

Planetary rings are among the most intriguing structures of our solar system and have fascinated generations of astronomers. Collating emerging knowledge in the field, this volume reviews our current understanding of ring systems with reference to the rings of Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and more. Written by leading experts, the history of ring research and the basics of ring-particle orbits is followed by a review of the known planetary ring systems. All aspects of ring system science are described in detail, including specific dynamical processes, types of structures, thermal properties and their origins, and investigations using computer simulations and laboratory experiments. The concluding chapters discuss the prospects of future missions to planetary rings, the ways in which ring science informs and is informed by the study of other astrophysical disks, and a perspective on the field's future. Researchers of all levels will benefit from this thorough and engaging presentation.

The emphasis of Planetary Atmospheres is on comparative aspects of planetary atmospheres, generally meaning comparison with the Earth, including atmospheric composition, thermal structure, cloud properties, dynamics, weather and climate, and aeronomy. The goal is to look for common processes at work under different boundary conditions in order to reach a fundamental understanding of the physics of atmospheres. As part of a general Physics course, the material is chosen to emphasise certain aspects that will be of broad topical interest:
- evolutionary processes, setting the Earth in its context as a planet and a member of the Solar System
- the properties of atmospheres that affect the climate near the surface of each planet
- measurement techniques and models, where the same experimental and theoretical physics is applied under different conditions to investigate and explain atmospheric behaviour.
These might be thought of as the astronomical, environmental, and technical sides of the discipline respectively.
The book covers the basic physics of planetary atmospheres in a single text for students or anyone interested in this area of science. The approach is the same as in the author's previous book Elementary Climate Physics: an overview, followed by more detailed discussion of key topics arranged by physical phenomenon and not planet by planet as usually found in this field. There is an emphasis on acquiring and interpreting measurements, and the basic physics of instruments and models, with key definitions and some historical background in footnotes and in the glossary at the end of the book.

This book captures the complex world of planetary moons, which are more diverse than Earth's sole satellite might lead you to believe. New missions continue to find more of these planetary satellites, making an up to date guide more necessary than ever. Why do Mercury and Venus have no moons at all? Earth's Moon, of course, is covered in the book with highly detailed maps. Then we move outward to the moons of Mars, then on to many of the more notable asteroid moons, and finally to a list of less-notable ones. All the major moons of the gas giant planets are covered in great detail, while the lesser-known satellites of these worlds are also touched on. Readers will learn of the remarkable trans-Neptunian Objects - Pluto, Eris, Sedna, Quaoar -including many of those that have been given scant attention in the literature. More than just objects to read about, the planets' satellites provide us with important information about the history of the solar system. Projects to help us learn more about the moons are included throughout the book. Most amateur astronomers can name some of the more prominent moons in the solar system, but few are intimately familiar with the full variety that exists in our backyard: 146 and counting. As our understanding of the many bodies in our solar system broadens, this is an invaluable tour of our expanding knowledge of the moons both near and far.

This book is primarily concerned with fundamental components of solar physics, terrestrial geophysics and general climate issues. Phenomena such as planetary influence on solar variability, the Sun's irradiance and solar wind continue to fascinate members of the scientific community. What is more astounding is the way in which our planet reacts to these occurrences; climate changes, sea levels, tides, ocean circulation and geomagnetism, all caused by the processes mentioned above. The pages that follow analyze and calculate the relationships between solar causation and terrestrial reaction. This work begins with a foreword from Walter Cunningham, the famous Apollo 7 astronaut who in 1968 took part in the first manned space flight. Section A is devoted to the concept of planetary-solar-terrestrial interaction and driving forces that represent a break-through in science. The book begins with a high-lightening of records indicating a planetary influence on solar activity and continues with multiple discussions of terrestrial variables. It concludes with an account of the physics behind the changes in the Sun and in the Earth. Section B presents the remarkable decision to terminate the journal of pattern recognition in physics because the authors concluded that we are now on our way into a new grand solar minimum. This inspires doubt in an accelerating global warming. In the name of science and ethics, five papers respond to this "modern book-burning". Section C is devoted to general conclusions, co-authored by 19 eminent scientists in the field of solar physics, geophysics, geology, hydrology and climatology. It also includes a short note on concluding editorial views.

Seismology is a highly effective tool for investigating the internal structure of the Earth. Similar techniques have also successfully been used to study other planetary bodies (planetary seismology), the Sun (helioseismology), and other stars (asteroseismology). Despite obvious differences between stars and planetary bodies, these disciplines share many similarities and together form a coherent field of scientific research. This unique book takes a transdisciplinary approach to seismology and seismic imaging, reviewing the most recent developments in these extraterrestrial contexts. With contributions from leading scientists, this timely volume systematically outlines the techniques used in observation, data processing, and modelling for asteroseismology, helioseismology, and planetary seismology, drawing comparisons with seismic methods used in geophysics. Important recent discoveries in each discipline are presented. With an emphasis on transcending the traditional boundaries of astronomy, solar, planetary and Earth sciences, this novel book is an invaluable resource and reference for undergraduates, postgraduates and academics.

Examines some of the most interesting aspects of the solar system, detailing how we unraveled the mystery of our world.

What are meteorites? Where do they come from? Are they a threat? What are they made of? How common are they? As centuries have passed, our knowledge of these extraterrestrial objects has advanced immensely, and today, the scientific study of meteorites provides a wealth of information about the solar system. Meteorites reveal clues to some of the greatest scientific enigmas:

• the origin of life on Earth
• the mass extinction of species
• the nature and composition of asteroids
• the conditions during the formation of the solar system
• the dust from stars that died long before our Sun formed.

Written by a team of experts, Meteorites is an accessible, comprehensive guide that features over two hundred full-color photographs, diagrams and graphs. Look no further for a wonderful introduction to these powerful, yet mystifying, objects. Brigitte Zanda is Associate Professor at the Mineralogy Laboratory of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, and Adjunct Member of the Graduate Faculty at Rutgers University. Following on from her PhD in Geochemistry, she has written many papers in Meteoritics and Planetary Science and other journals, and is a member of the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society. Monica Rotaru is Department Chief of Earth Sciences at the Palais de la découverte in Paris, where she organizes scientific exhibitions. After her PhD in geochemistry, she has conducted research in climatology and written television science documentaries.